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Hi Guys! Happy Saturday. How are you all doing? Friday night I just had three sets of visitors. Man do I feel loved and special. What makes you feel special?
Table of Contents
The 5 Love Languages
They say there are 5 love languages: receiving gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service (devotion), and physical touch. Mine is definitely a combination of receiving gifts (primary) and quality time (secondary). I share the love by way of words of affirmation (primary) and the giving of gifts (secondary). So imagine how grateful and loved I felt having these visitors and also receiving gifts of food and support from family and friends.
If you have never read Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages book series, you will find them incredibly insightful and useful in your relationships. The first book that was published in 1995 deals with loving your “mate” but further editions are geared towards children, singles, and those in the workplace and military.
Review of the SINGLES Edition
The singles edition is intended for folks in all relationship statuses. The beginning of the book is a bit slow and technical but once you get to the stories about the football player, things pick up speed fast. The football player is popular in the community but does not know how to keep a relationship with his many girlfriends. There are stories for each love language. At the end of the book there is a “Things to Think About” section including questions such as “Did you feel loved by your parents?” and a 29 question quiz to figure out which is your personal love language.
Suggested Reading: Til We Meet Again is a Romantic True Story That Defies the Odds
Gary Chapman
Aside from being best known for his concept of The 5 Love Languages, Gary Chapman is also the senior associate pastor at Calvary Baptist Church in North Carolina and so you can expect spiritual undertones to the books.
Suggested Readings
In addition to the nonfiction book series, Gary Chapman co-wrote with Catherine Palmer a series of fiction books, The Four Seasons Collection, that focus on the four seasons of marriage starting with It Happens Every Spring. The plot and characters evince Chapman’s thesis that marriage is a journey back and forth through different “seasons”. Each book includes a study guide with healing strategies as depicted in each novel.
Loved Ones of Someone Who’s Chronically Ill
When you have a chronic illness and especially right after getting out of surgery, you depend on your loved ones to demonstrate love and support. Loved ones will benefit from understanding the five love languages and you too will understand and appreciate the love you receive from others after understanding the love languages too.
Sharing is Caring
Continue the Conversation
Feel free to share your love languages in the comments below!
I read this book a few years ago, and it is one that I plan to refer back to and reread over and over again as I go through different stages of my short life. I had read this a few years after my divorce and quickly and easily realized how this book might have helped in that situation. I am of course grateful for my personal journey up until this point, but it was great to become introspective and use this book to think back to certain times where resentments had grown between me and my ex and just to see where we didn’t have the words to express where we felt under served (we were young!). In my current relationship it has helped me very much. I now understand the way I receive love and the way my future husband receives love. I recommend this book to every single one of my friends that are getting married, are in transition, or are totally single. It helps so much to recognize the way you appreciate being loved so you can easily identify how a significant other works with you to make sure you feel loved, as well as how best to reciprocate how they appreciate being loved.