Love Languages

We all start life out desiring to be loved and desiring to love others. Because of those desires you'd think that love would abound in this world, but it doesn't.Things go wrong and people don't love. Or, what is sadder, people love but the love doesn't communicate to the loved one.

One of the problems is that we all experience love differently. Naturally when we love someone and want them to know it we express our love in the same way we feel loved. But if the way we feel loved isn't the same way they feel loved, the love doesn't communicate and the person goes through life feeling unloved.

Dr. Gary Chapman explains that there are five "love languages" and that when we want to express love we need to express it in the other person's language. He has a wonderful web site that explains the five love languages and has a short quiz so you can determine what your love language is. You can find his site here.

These five love languages are (1) affirming words, (2) physical touch, (3) gifts, (4) sharing quality time, and (5) acts of service. When working with our spouse or children if we don't know their love language, we can use all five languages and through trial and error discover which love language communicates best to them. The import thing is to learn how to communicate the love we feel so that it is felt by the people we love.