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| Photo by SJLife Photography |
It was clear at "I do" that he's GIFTS and QUALITY TIME. I, on the other hand, have always been more of an ACTS OF SERVICE and WORDS OF AFFIRMATION kinda girl...
During the first few months of our marriage...on more than one occasion, I'm afraid...it was glaringly obvious that the Hubs and I were saying "I love you" but in completely foreign languages. To make matters worse, he and I had come from two very different views of "forever." EVERY marriage in his closest circles of influence was happily in tact, while EVERY marriage I had ever known had crumbled or was on its "take two" or "three."
So what do you do when two very opposite worlds collide?
It was around this time that an older gentleman at our church saw our distress from a distance and recommended a great book to help us interpret each others' fumbled attempts at "I love you."
The Five Love Languages
by Gary Chapman became a translator for us during that first year. Neither one of us needed a reminder of WHY we loved each other. We just needed help figuring out HOW to love each other. Since that time, the Hubs and I have purposed to make our "forever" investment a high priority...seconded only to our eternal one. It hasn't always been an easy road...the ones WORTH traveling rarely are. But, with nearly twelve WONDERFUL years behind us and five children to bear witness of our love, I feel like we have come a long way from the confusion of the early days.
"Cut to the chase," you say??
Well, he and I are thrilled to join together with thousands of other couples across the country for the free 5 Week Love Language Challenge for a chance to take stock in our investment. Starting the week of Valentine's Day 2013, weekly challenge ideas designed for our specific love languages will be sent to us via email. Simple acts and words of love will multiply in the coming weeks filling our love tanks to overflowing!
I invite you to sign up along side of us. Join together as a couple, or even by yourself...as one half of a whole. Take the challenge and invest in your "I do."
"What does this have to do with homeschooling?" you ask.
Well, in my case, EVERYTHING! My husband is my biggest supporter...in all things, but especially homeschooling. Obviously, I do the day-to-day teaching of our children. But, I couldn't do it without his love and support. When we are a unified and when our "tanks are filled," we are both, better equipped to face all the successes and struggles of our days. God joined us together and now we are ONE. How can I accomplish this monumental task of homeschooling with only HALF of the WHOLE?
When we "speak" love to each other, EVERYTHING in our lives is so much easier and more enjoyable...and that includes homeschooling.
The 5 Love Languages Challenge not your thing? Here are a few more helpful resources that the Hubs and I have enjoyed together over the years.
My husband and I like this book, The FIve Love Languages, so much that we give it as part of our gift now every time we go to a wedding. The other set that we love to give to other couples, especially newly weds, is Shaunti Feldhahn's "For Women Only" and "For Men Only." This set of two books helped me more than anything else to understand my husband, since he is a man of few words and doesn't explain how he feels very often. He was the one who heard her speak on Focus on the Family, then ordered the books immediately, and handing them to me, said, "This is how I feel." (!)
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I read Feldhahn's books several years ago and love them also. Very insightful as to how the other one viewed the relationship.
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