Week 5: Love

We learned about the different types of love.  There are four types: Agape, Storge, Eros, and Phillia. Agape is the type of love that is independent of one's feelings.  It has to do with an intention and is not feeling-based.  Storge is the kind of love that a parent has for their child.  Eros is the popular type of love that everyone sings about which is the passionate and sexual love.  Many people think Eros is what true love is and many relationships are built off of it, but then they fail.  The last one is Phillia, which is when you have a sense and want of closeness, friendliness and brotherly love.
When asked which ones we need for a marriage or relationship to work well, I immediately recognized that all four are needed.  As I said earlier, there are many relationships of just Eros and because they only have the romance and sexual love and nothing else, they don't endure or last.  I believe their needs to be a balance of all four types of love.  
You may be confused by how Storge would be important in marriage.  Well what comes to mind when you think of how a parent who loves their child treats them?  I think of the sense of responsibility and the want and need to take care of them.  I feel that way for my husband.  I think that's why in a lot of families, they joke that Dad is one of Mom's kids.  When my husband gets sick, I want and do my best to help him in his sickness.  When he has any kind of a problem, I try to help him figure it out.  Whenever his self-confidence goes down, I do my best to bring it back up as high as I can.  He does the same for me.  Our moms used to have that role, but since we've been married, we fill in those categories.  A wife replaces a mother in many ways.  This is my proof that Storge love has not only a place in a marriage, but a big place.  It's our feelings of taking care of each other come from.
Having Agape shows that you can love your spouse even when you aren't getting along.  Your love won't fade even if you aren't currently "in love" with them.  It's very important to have in a relationship because it helps it endure.  Phillia is also important to have, in my opinion, because it's hard to be married to someone if you don't have a friendship as well.  Many spouse's say that they married their best friend.  I did as well.  Because of our friendship, we can laugh with each other and get along well.  A relationship without a friendship is hard to have last. 
Therefore, if you want to have a relationship that has a good chance of succeeding, make sure that you can identify Agape, Storge, Eros and Phillia within it.  It definitely wouldn't have a chance without all four types of love.