How Many Languages Can You Speak?

And do everything with love. 1 Corinthians 16:14 (NLT)

What makes you feel loved? Is it when someone tells you they love you or puts their arm around you? Maybe it’s when they help you make dinner, surprise you with an unexpected gift, or spend time visiting with you.

Gary Chapman’s book, The Five Love Languages, talks about the five main love languages by which people experience or receive love. According to the book, love can be shown through these five ways: words of affirmation, physical touch, acts of service, receiving gifts and quality time.

Although we usually speak our own preferred love language fluently, it’s crucial that we learn to speak every one of those love languages so the people around us feel loved too. Otherwise, our loved ones will go through life not knowing how much you really love them. Picture the impact it’ll have if you invest the time to understand and speak your spouse, child or grandchild’s love language!

Perhaps you weren’t raised with parents that hugged you a lot, so you have a hard time with physical affection now that you’re a parent. Or maybe you never heard an encouraging word growing up, so you feel awkward complimenting your spouse. Don’t allow that to be an excuse. We can all figure out how to take the time to play catch or read a bedtime story with the child who loves quality time, or vacuum the floors for the spouse who thrives on acts of service.

You can learn new love languages and gain the ability to sense them in others very quickly. Just being open to learning while being sensitive to Holy Spirit’s guidance will change your life profoundly!