Reading a novel. Ran across (sub-sub-sub-plot) “I need to earn her love.”
Whatever comes of the effort, it wouldn’t be a “love” that endures. A love that endures embodies the Rogerian translation of agape: unconditional positive regard. It’s the “unconditional” that is most important. Now, that unconditional positive regard may not result in the actions the one so loved desires, if their actions are negative, because actions have consequences, and love is sometimes tough. Lovingly tough.
Not that, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” but “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Attempting to earn the love of another, and thinking that being worthy of their love is a prerequisite can result in a relationship built on sand. As I remind my own Wonder Woman: it’s not my fault she loves me (since I could never really be worthy of her love but only attempt to demonstrate my own and my appreciation for hers). *heh*
It’s amazing to me that in a world obsessed with “love” and loving that so few really understand it.
The world (as in mankind, of course) indeed NEEDS love, but the love we all need is a love the world wots not. This need is manifested in fallen mankind in all sorts of perverted ways, designed by sin and its chief proponent to lure us away from love, and addict us to its toxic substitutes.