What the world needs now, is LOVE. Agape Love

September 17, 2010 | By admin In Relationships | Comments(0)

What the world needs now, is LOVE. Agape Love

The 1965 song by Burt Bacharach, “What the world needs now, is love.” is even more true today. I define Love as, “A deep caring and concern for another.”
The ancient Greeks placed love in one of 4 categories:
  1. Philia Love is dispassionate, virtuous love but often guided by our moods and experiences.
  2. Storge Love is family love and affection, including your closest friends.
  3. Eros Love is physical love or desire. The media tends to focus society on this kind of love ONLY.
  4. Agape Love is true, unconditional love regardless of whether you are loved back or not. This is God’s love for us. Complete. Total. Unconditional.
What our world needs is more Agape love. Just imagine a world where people stop hating; stop stealing; stop lying; stop hurting; stop killing. A world where people stop taking credit and stepping over one another to get ahead but work as a team instead. 

Imagine a world where people start caring, sharing, helping and giving freely. Imagine a world of Agape Love! 

I promise you, not everyone in the world will adopt Agape Love. I CAN and DO promise you, the world will be better if YOU and I take it upon ourselves to practice Agape Love. Regardless of how anyone else treats us, we can choose to love. Agape Love does not mean you have to like what other people do or even like THEM as people. We just have to love them. 

Regardless of your own personal faith, loving others is freeing. As a Christian, I am commanded to love my enemy. Once I said the words, “I love Osama Bin Laden”… I felt FREE of anger and hate for him. I still do not like what he does or his philosophy, but he no longer controls my emotions. There is freedom in Agape Love. 

Suggestion: Try putting more Agape Love into your life and relationships starting right now. Hug those who have offended you at home and love them. Stop criticizing those you find annoying and love them. Contribute more at work and to work teams because your love tells you it is the right thing to do. Start each day with a smile because love fills your heart. Agape Love is God’s Love working through us. 

Smile Maker: Good doctor?
Patient: “I see spots before my eyes.”
Doctor: “Here… let me put in some eye drops. How is it now?”
Patient: “Much better! I can see the spots much clearer.”
The Greeks defined love in four categories:
  1. Agape love is unconditional love. It is love by “choice” even if you are not pleased. A good example is “God loves us with our faults.”
  2. Philia love is the dispassionate virtuous love, guided by our likes or our healthy or unhealthy needs and desires.
  3. Storge is the word for family love and the physical show of “affection”, the need for physical touch. Sometimes the love between exceptional friends. See also: WikiPedia:Storge
  4. Eros is the physical “sexual” desire, intercourse. It is the root word of erotic, anderoticism.

Got comments or questions? Just leave your comments here.

Filed under: Relationships

Woo Your Wife (Your Boss, Your Family)

September 1, 2010 | By admin In Home and Family,Relationships | Comments(1)

Woo Your Wife (Your Boss, Your Family)

Wow Your Wife

This may seem like the oddest topic for this primarily business series. I think it is one of the most important and relevant for women as well as men, married or single. To ‘woo’ is, ‘To attempt to gain the love, favour or support of someone.’ When you woo someone, you tell them, ‘You are special to me.’ Today in Woo Your Wife (Your Boss, Your Family), we will cover how to keep a marriage alive from both the male and female perspective, how to attract a partner if you are single and how to even get a new or better job. Wives, husbands, boy and girlfriends, bosses and jobs require a little wooing.

GIFT. Any suitor worth his salt will not show up empty handed to pick up a date. Flowers are the most common. It is not what you bring, it is the thought you are bringing something to say, ‘You are special to me.‘

In my marriage, after years of my bride asking me, `How much was it?` to the flowers I brought home, I stopped bringing flowers. I forgot the point was not flowers, the point was to say, `You are special to me.`

Now, I try to bring her me. I sit down with her and ask her about her day. I pour her a glass of wine. I take over with the children and give her a break. These actions say, ‘You are special to me.’ better than flowers.

Even a boss likes to know, ‘You are special to me.’ Taking the time to clean up a nagging project or finishing a project in record time is a wonderful way to convey that message to a boss. Woo your boss and bosses` boss by being the best employee you can be.

Question: What are you doing for the key people in your life that tells them, ‘You are special to me.’?

TIME. Spending time with your spouse tells him / her you care. If you have time for work, service clubs, church / mosque / temple, friends, shopping but no time for the spouse one-on-one, what does that say? Start blocking out time for the people that matter most to you. It says to them, `You are special to me.`

What to advance your career? Start investing time now in areas related to your career to learn them, grow in them, make connections with the right people and position yourself as a leader. Woo the career you want.

LISTEN. Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen. Listen. It says, `You are special to me.`

Notice there is no advice given or instructions to be followed. Why? Much of the time, people tells us what they need to unburden themselves of and listening is the way we contribute. Most often, only if asked, should be share options for fixing what ails them. Woo people, do not burden them.

Today is the perfect time to start wooing your wife, husband, boss, parents or anyone else you deem important to you. Show them you love them. Show them you care. Find a good better way to tell them, ‘You are special to me.’

Filed under: Home and Family,Relationships