"The more love you're shown the more you have to give" - True or not?

[charlottecharade]

"The more love you're shown the more you have to give"

For example, take the case of an abused child. Growing up in abusive conditions where love is absent takes a toll on the child's upbringing. When they grow up, isn't it harder for them to show love to others because they don't know what love is? Can you exhibit love without being loved by others?

Does that above quote seem acurate? Why does it seem like some people have an endless supply of love? Is it impossible for a human to give another "infinite love"? Where do they find the love?* Is it a just a feeling they evoke every day?* Or is it a way of life?

[JimOfferman]

I'm inclined to say that cause and effect are reversed:

"The more love you show, the more is given back to you"

It all starts with you. That's why some victims of child abuse grow up to become saints and why children of even the most loving parents sometimes turn out cold and cruel.

[Lola]

Originally Posted by JimOfferman

I'm inclined to say that cause and effect are reversed:

"The more love you show, the more is given back to you"

It all starts with you.

**nods in assent**

[Angela]

I agree with Jim and Lola that the way you're looking at it is backwards, as far as empowering yourself and others goes.

Another way to look at it is: The more love you generate, the more love there is for everybody! (I don't think of love as a commodity that is "given" and "received," but rather, as something that is generated and experienced.)

[Gordon]

Yes I'll third that too.

Think of it as a present....remember the old saying, 'It is better to give, than to receive'

G

[wolfgang]

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.

Points if you know where this quote is from...

[Lola]

Originally Posted by wolfgang

Points if you know where this quote is from...

The Beatles!

...Abbey Road?

[Akashic_Librarian]

Its called:

The End - The Beatles

and I would be inclined to say that love is a verb, not a finite substance to be handed out and recieved.

[wolfgang]

Points to you both. Of coarse I'd like to say the Beatles meant a lot by saying that. Makeing love is not nessecasarily the sex act, by the way. So what their quote says is the love you experience (take) is equal to the love you make. The love you make is how much you actually generate for yourself and others or how often you have a loving thought or action. But to relate that to the thread - maybe you can only generate love in keeping with what you have epxerienced, however any experience that has good love of any kind can be grown by oneself. As if you recognize the love as good and then check it out and find it can grow beyond what you have experienced or have been shown in the past.