I’m a big fan of Gary Chapman’s best selling book, “The Five Love Languages“. As I talked about this weekend, this book really helped Lori and I develop our communication in marriage. Early on, we just weren’t communicating love well, no matter how hard we tried.
Here’s a startling revelation: men and women are different. Our style of communicating is different too. What we mean when we speak or act may differ dramatically from one person to another; and how we hear or interpret what’s been said may be equally diverse. Too, the whole realm of non-verbal communication is limitless, so it’s no small wonder that signals get mixed, and feelings get trampled - often by accident.
Let’s get intentional about how we communicate our love to our spouse. Better yet, let’s get intentional about gaining an understanding of how our spouse receives love messages. In “The Five Love Languages”, we are told that all of us fall into one of five primary love languages. Maybe it’s time we took a crash course in a new dialect, sitting down with our spouse to find out which of these most resonates with them:
Words of Affirmation
Quality Time
Receiving Gifts
Acts of Service
Physical Touch
In any language we can agree with the poet Robert Frost: “Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired.” Make sure the language you use clearly communicate to your spouse just how much you treasure them.
