A LESSON IN LOVE

Acts of service? Touch? Time? Gifts? Words of affirmation? Each of us responds to certain languages of love. You may favor one strongly. You may equally value two of them. There are a great number of combinations that any person may value differently. We all seem to be programmed to receive love in certain ways unique to each person. 

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In my home, there are eight different young people who, despite having the same genetic sources, each has a unique combination of love languages. To love one child I may have to buy them a gift and then help them to use it. For another, they need 10 hugs a day. Yet another child may want to be in the car every time I go somewhere. Do you realize how much work it takes to love eight people in the manner in which they can receive it?

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Early in my role as a father I realized that there are such things as good gifts and bad gifts. Good gifts are those that are well received. For each person in my family to experience love, I must deliberately choose how to love them, even when their love language is something I don't enjoy. And as loving each other is next to the greatest commandment, I am so thankful to be in a situation where I have had so much practice to love others.