Ask: What is the difference between God's Love and personal love?
What are the differences in the love for God and the love for another 'special relationship' man / woman / child. I know one difference would be conditional love for another body and unconditional love between God and myself. But is it the same kind of love? My ACIM group says they are different and it is too bad they use the same word. I think the love between myself and my spouse is the same as, albeit, a small representation of God's love for me. – RQ
The most obvious difference between the Love of God and personal love is that God’s Love simply is and personal love is always directed toward an object (person, animal, or thing).
God’s Love is God’s Being, which means It is your True Being. The experience of It is radiating joy and peace, without beginning or ending. It is an experience of wholeness that has no correlation in the personal experience.
God’s Love is introduced to you as “God loves you” when you are identifying with a personal self not because God’s Love is really directed toward the personal self that you think of as you but because you still think in terms of God as a separate being rather than as your Being. It is stated this way to reassure you that your perception of yourself as guilty and unworthy of God’s Love is a fallacy. This motivates you to open yourself to the experience of God, which is the experience of Love, or joyous wholeness and peace. The more you experience God the more the boundary of a separate self falls away and you realize that God is the One Being that is. God is your Being, so you are Love.
My dictionaries refer to (personal) “love” as deep devotion or affection or regard for another or others; a fond attachment or kind feeling toward another or others. While God’s Love is unconditional because It simply is, you can see by these definitions that personal love is always conditional. Personal love forms only under certain conditions, like an unconscious resemblance to another “loved” one, familiarity, similarity, needs being met, etc. Even a “kind feeling” is only present in the personal self when the personal self is in a good mood!
When you are in touch with God’s Love within you, you exist in a state of Love, or wholeness. This Love is not inspired by anyone outside of you, nor do you direct It toward an object. It simply is. It manifests as a radiating “kind feeling” everywhere, without boundaries or conditions, but from you, not from the personal self, which always has boundaries and conditions. Your awareness of God’s Love within you also manifests as loving personal relationships showing up for the personal self in the forms that it needs them.
You know that you are in touch with God’s Love within you when your attachments to others are light and joyous. You see your relationships with others as the manifestation of God’s Love within you, rather than as the source of love for you. So you are free to allow others to be themselves, without needing to manipulate or to change them so that you can be happy and whole. If others must move on you let them go with perhaps temporary regret but not with crushing loss. You may miss them, but you know that you will not be lost without them, because Love is always with you.
>>>>
Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.
If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.
The most obvious difference between the Love of God and personal love is that God’s Love simply is and personal love is always directed toward an object (person, animal, or thing).
God’s Love is God’s Being, which means It is your True Being. The experience of It is radiating joy and peace, without beginning or ending. It is an experience of wholeness that has no correlation in the personal experience.
God’s Love is introduced to you as “God loves you” when you are identifying with a personal self not because God’s Love is really directed toward the personal self that you think of as you but because you still think in terms of God as a separate being rather than as your Being. It is stated this way to reassure you that your perception of yourself as guilty and unworthy of God’s Love is a fallacy. This motivates you to open yourself to the experience of God, which is the experience of Love, or joyous wholeness and peace. The more you experience God the more the boundary of a separate self falls away and you realize that God is the One Being that is. God is your Being, so you are Love.
My dictionaries refer to (personal) “love” as deep devotion or affection or regard for another or others; a fond attachment or kind feeling toward another or others. While God’s Love is unconditional because It simply is, you can see by these definitions that personal love is always conditional. Personal love forms only under certain conditions, like an unconscious resemblance to another “loved” one, familiarity, similarity, needs being met, etc. Even a “kind feeling” is only present in the personal self when the personal self is in a good mood!
When you are in touch with God’s Love within you, you exist in a state of Love, or wholeness. This Love is not inspired by anyone outside of you, nor do you direct It toward an object. It simply is. It manifests as a radiating “kind feeling” everywhere, without boundaries or conditions, but from you, not from the personal self, which always has boundaries and conditions. Your awareness of God’s Love within you also manifests as loving personal relationships showing up for the personal self in the forms that it needs them.
You know that you are in touch with God’s Love within you when your attachments to others are light and joyous. You see your relationships with others as the manifestation of God’s Love within you, rather than as the source of love for you. So you are free to allow others to be themselves, without needing to manipulate or to change them so that you can be happy and whole. If others must move on you let them go with perhaps temporary regret but not with crushing loss. You may miss them, but you know that you will not be lost without them, because Love is always with you.
>>>>
Learn about the books The ACIM Mentor Articles, The Plain Language A Course in Miracles, and 4 Habits for Inner Peace at www.acimmentor.com.
If you have a question that you want answered in the ACIM Mentor Newsletter/Blog send it to Liz@acimmentor.com and indicate that you want it answered here.
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