Love Without Limits
How can we love others unconditionally?
by Hannah Taylor
Suitable for Key Stage 4/5
Aims
To consider unconditional love, and how our actions and habits can make a positive difference.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Love Without Limits) and the means to display them.
- Have available the YouTube video ‘Unconditional: share the love’ and the means to show it during the assembly. It is 2.12 minutes long and is available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgjYJpSUH3c
Assembly
- Raise your hand if you have heard of the term ‘unconditional love’.
Pause to allow time for students to raise their hands.
Keep your hand raised if you understand what it means.
Ask the students to lower their hands. - We most often hear the term ‘unconditional love’ used in connection with family. It can be a hard concept to grasp, but the meaning behind it is that a family member will always be loved, no matter what. It means loving one another through difficult times, frustrations and mistakes without prejudice, judgement, criticism or blame.
It can be challenging to love unconditionally because we often push the boundaries with the people who are closest to us. We may cause hurt to one another – but unconditional love involves forgiveness. - Accepting the flaws, mistakes and quirks of others can be one of the kindest and most rewarding things that we can do as human beings. Learning to offer forgiveness, love, connection and understanding, and being open to compromise and moving on, leads to more fulfilling lives and relationships. However, it can be very hard to do in practice.
- Let’s think about some examples of how we can love without limits.
Imagine that you have spent the morning helping your brother with his school project. When you went to check your messages, he became annoyed with you for getting distracted and said something hurtful.
Your immediate response might be to say something like, ‘I’ve spent all morning helping you, and look how you’re treating me. Forget it - I’m never helping you again.’ The meaning behind this is that you expect love and respect because of your actions towards him.
However, if you respond by saying something like, ‘I’m happy to help you, but you can’t speak to me that way,’ you are explaining that you love and respect him no matter what, but there are boundaries and he has to respect them.
Another example might be that you have volunteered to befriend an elderly person, but he has told you that he doesn’t want any help. However, you persevere and by doing so, you show that you are caring for someone without expecting anything in return. - Here are a few tips on how we can love unconditionally, without limits.
Show Slide 1.
- Love. Let’s pay attention to how love is shown around us. Do people do things for us to make us happy? Do they expect anything in return? Should they?
- Acceptance. Let’s value and accept people.
- Honesty. We should be honest, and let people know what we expect and how we feel.
- Empathy. When we listen and show empathy, we show our commitment and demonstrate that we truly care for someone.
- Forgiveness. Sometimes, we need to let things go and move forward. - Show the YouTube video ‘Unconditional: share the love’ (2.12 minutes long).
Time for reflection
Some of us have experienced love that is unconditional; some of us have not. Sometimes, we need to talk to someone about how we feel.
Remind the students of any services that are available in school if they need to talk to someone.
Ask the students to think about times when they have felt loved.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Ask the students whether they have ever made the effort to show love to other people. How did that make them feel?
Pause to allow time for thought.
Ask the students to think about how unconditional love might make them feel. Would it make them feel happy and secure?
Encourage the students to think about ways in which they could show this kind of love to others.
Prayer
Dear Lord,
Thank you for always staying with me and loving me through all that I do.
Please guide me so that I may follow in your footsteps,
And love others unconditionally, as you do.
Amen.
Song/music
‘Hey brother’ by Avicii, available at: https://youtu.be/un6s1R-4Ud8 (4.15 minutes long)
