The Kinds of Love and Sacrifice in a Relationship

 

The Kinds of Love and Sacrifice in a Relationship

 

This is very common and yet so hard to deal with and always part of human drama. Love is just so simple to grasp but many have so many definitions as it depends on circumstances. It is but a mere emotion that drives people to coil and sometimes lost in its recesses. It makes people float in ecstasy and some drown in miseries, but most of the time, it is bittersweet. Love is both happiness and sadness.

 God is the ultimate epitome of Love. He sacrificed His only begotten Son for our salvation. Thus, sacrifice is the ultimate expression of love. Love does not envy nor jealous. It does not beget hate. It begets love. This is the truth about love.

 A mere human could actually define love in so many ways according to what his conditions dictate. A person may experience love towards his family, friends, and a love between two persons who share an intimate relationship and commitment.

 

A mother loves her children and sacrifices until they get older. She provides their needs – physical, emotional, spiritual, and social needs. She wants what is best for them. Motherly love is deep, insurmountable, and immeasurable. She provides, protects, and sacrifices.

 While love between friends is a kind of love where they enjoy and experience a common understanding of something. They share bonds and treat themselves as if they are siblings. They are inseparable. They protect each other, sacrifice, and endure happiness and sadness together. This type of love is unique because they are connected genuinely even the are not related by blood, but by heart.

 The other kind of love is a love between two persons committed to a relationship and bound to share love, respect, and fulfillment of each other’s needs. They share intimate feelings and guarantee to be exclusively ardent with each other.

 A relationship is an affair of two persons who agreed with mutual pact and emotional bond where love, trust, respect and understanding exist. It is termed as Commitment. These intangible aspects connect them because relationships cannot survive without these. Commitment, per se, doesn’t need to be verbalized, it is felt. Both should work for it to make it better and stronger.

 Indeed, in a relationship, both should accept their individual differences, settle their disputes and misunderstandings in a mature manner, learn to deal with their weaknesses, know each other’s limitations and should grow with their strengths. They need to sacrifice.

 It is called partnership, they must invest feelings, effort, time and even money if needed. Priorities must be set. They must show passion and comfort. The hierarchy of needs must be fulfilled and satisfied.  Someone doesn’t need to be deprived of his rights and needs, it should be exercised to have a gratifying relationship.

 The very idea here is that no matter what kind of love a person is in, it always requires sacrifice and should always beget love. Love is not love without sacrificing because the very purpose of sacrifice is to show love. When someone sacrifices, it creates happiness and love to the person he or she is sacrificing for.

 Thus, sacrifice, per se, is an act of surrendering something important for the sake of relationship. In other words, something is given up for the relationship to work.

 There are also kinds of sacrifices in a relationship. But in this book, I would only cite just two important types of sacrifice that are commonly present in a relationship – a kind of sacrifice that saves relationship and a sacrifice of one’s happiness to save oneself.

 The previous pertains to the “saving the relationship” while losing things like hanging out with friends habitually and other vises, for instance. Surrendering these things is not subject to conditions. A person must give it without conditions especially when those have dire effects to a relationship. It is given freely because he or she doesn’t want to lose the person he or she loves.

 While the latter refers to the “saving oneself from once healthy relationship”.  For instance, if there is a lack of any needs which one fails to give, gradually there will be a change - a change that needs to be settled, not to be ignored. If one is unaware of his responsibilities and overlooked it, the other should acknowledge that absence on his partner’s behalf, that’s why it is called partnership - someone must fill what is empty. If these conditions are not achieved, then it is a one-sided relationship.

 When one’s happiness and needs are deprived, a person must learn to let go of the relationship that is no longer healthy. He or she must protect himself or herself from the results of toxic relationships. He or she must let go, especially when respect is no longer served.

 Many people have ended up with unsuccessful relationships because of discomforts they encountered with their partner. They ignored the fact that a mere mistake could be resolved, but they instead keep disharmony until the whole commitment is ruined. They deal with their weaknesses immaturely, and they let their relationship slip away. It requires extra strength to settle things; be empathetic and discard selfishness and pride to guarantee a long-term commitment. In any kind of relationship, love and sacrifice are present. Both are indispensable.