Having a child seems to awaken new emotions for some people. Jaden runs a multi-million-dollar company, has a beautiful wife, and enjoys the freedom to travel as he pleases. Interestingly, Jaden's life transformed when he had his son. His values shifted, and he started a nonprofit aimed at mentoring young boys through sports. He says that nothing makes him happier than being there for his son. While not all parents experience such a transformation upon having a child, Jaden’s story is a unique example of discovering agape love. Agape love manifests in various situations and domains of life. Abraham J. Twerski, an American psychiatrist, introduces the idea of "fish love" versus "true love"—or "agape love" as referred to in psychology.
There was a boy who saw beautiful fish in the lake and decided to take them out of the water, cook them, and eat them. When a man asked why he ate the fish, the boy responded, "Because I love the fish." The man told the boy, "You do not love the fish. You love yourself."
If the boy truly loved the fish, he would have left it in the lake and nurtured it. His concern was more for his own pleasure, and thus the fish was merely a means for his own selfish enjoyment. Agape love is a love for another person where the giver wholeheartedly enjoys the process of giving that love.
Erich Fromm, a social psychologist, found it quite contradictory to see people fall in love and claim that they loved their partner 'and nobody else', thinking that it was proof of the intensity of their love. But if you truly have love for your partner, you would have love for everyone. Fromm says, "If I can say to somebody else, 'I love you,' I must be able to say, 'I love in you everybody, I love through you the world, I love in you also myself.'" This means that if you truly love someone, you would have that same love for everyone else. If you do not love and care for a........