Alvin Kristopher C.

Perlada 11336951 TVEP 3

TREDFOR has been an invaluable course to have been taken throughout my college life, it is not
mere just about Theology and how we apply it into our lives, but is actually more on how we go
about our lives as an individual and how we can be ready to be committed into something for our
future. Be it marriage, single blessedness or priesthood. There are very intricate steps, traits and
qualities that I as a person should possess. It is a matter of knowing oneself, knowing what are
the strengths, and the weaknesses. The traits that you are willing to sacrifice and the traits that
you as a person should improve further and show to others, to make it short; it dwells on
maturity. Being mature is not in of itself an easy task, I for one, thought I was very mature until I
realize under extensive reflection that I still have some growing up to do. There things that I have
failed to consider and thought I was all set for the future. Growing up is not as easy as it looks,
there is a lot of hardships to go through, I realized this when we were given choices that were not
easy to deal with, answer werent as simple as we thought it would be, it is not a matter of black
or white, but a whole spectrum.

But I digress, this term is not necessarily for self reflection, this is actually about love. And not
just any kind of love, not the honey moon, or the movie screen kind of love, or the kind of love
we experience right now, or puppy love or any other kind of love. There nothing greater, it is
second to nothing, the ultimate form of love that surpasses all forms of love known to man
Authentic Love. As I am not really part of the Christian Community (being agnostic and all) I
couldnt really see the relevance of how Christian authentic love would apply to me. I have my
own notions of what authentic love should be, but as I go on throughout the course of TREDFOR
I realize that mine, and Christian Authentic Love is not so far apart, in fact I can attest that the
only real difference between that version and my version is the amount of faith in a higher being
and practices being done. Surely I really dont have to go through the sacred act of matrimony or
hear the sermons of priest every now and then, but that is not all there is about Christian
Authentic love. Theres also a focus on the individual, theres focus on how the growth of a
person, and theres focus on how a person in his daily life, must learn to accept things. Here in
TREDFOR one of the fondest and lessons I had was from the Good Samaritan. About how the
universal analogy for unquestionable, unconditional kindness had a deeper meaning to it than
what is taught to me in my youth, the extent of the aid given by a stranger who may or may not
be from an opposing faction at the time was delivered to the helpless and the needy despite the
negative factors surrounding the incident, and Ive come to realize that in myself; real love is not
about how your partner reacts to what you gave, its not the way she returns back what youve
given, (she may not even reciprocate your feelings) but in the end, its a matter of love, not
expectations. Love is something you as a person can express, and authentic love is the expression
of love at its purest form, wherein you love unconditionally, no ifs, no buts, just love. The phrase
turn the other cheek also shed a light into my insight when I thought it was just another
Christian metaphor, and to do those things is very difficult, I cannot stress enough how difficult
it is but I will try DIFFICULT because it is not easy to push aside things like it was nothing
all for the sake of the love you have for your partner or anyone really. It is not easy to let go of
your Ego, your Pride, these are things that you just have to look into yourself. It is not easy to
grow up, but it is even harder to be mature.

At my age, Im pretty sure I had a leveled head when it came to partner relations and sexual
interactions. Having my fair share of relationships here and there has brought me up to a
conscious state of the dos and donts in a relationship, and the lessons in TREDFOR seemed to
just further affirm the notions I have in my head, which I found was really nice. I never really
had troubles realizing the gravity of sexuality in relationships, but I never wouldve really
guessed that Christian notions of sexuality and intercourse for that matter isnt as rigid as I
thought it would be, Ive always thought that sexuality is often perceived as a negative aspect in
Christian living, but that is not necessarily the case, and I found that rather nice.

Lastly, one of the things that Ive realized in TREDFOR is that although I thought that, having
this and that, having a checklist of everything I needed for marriage, I believe that only then I
will be able to be ready, but that is not the case apparently, being ready isnt a static list, it is a
growing list of things, needs, wants, and everything from money, career, a house, expenses,
some time alone, when the family has been provided for, when you reached the pinnacle of your
academic beliefs, when youve left a mark in history, and all of these things, but still it is not
enough, there is something else, there will always be something else that you have to have in
order for you to be married, because even in an instant where all of the aforementioned things
were somehow miraculously given to you in a blink of an eye, you still wont be ready.

And I learned and realized all that in TREDFOR.