I told a friend I thought I should write a book about how God speaks to us in our own Love Language. I noticed that based on Gary Chapman’s five love languages that identify how we most experience love and how we are most likely to show love to others, God seemed to be touching people in their own preferred love language. The five languages are touch, words of affirmation, time, gifts and service.
For example, a friend who has the love language of words of affirmation feels God speaks to her very directly and often she senses He is sharing of his love and acceptance for her. Another friend who has touch as a love language experienced what felt like God’s spirit physically laying a hand on his shoulder. Others with the language of service have had people serve them in ways that they felt God’s love. Unfortunately, I learned recently that Gary Chapman beat me to writing the book and he does have a book out called God Speaks Your Love Language.
My love language is gifts; giving and getting presents basically. I'm recognizing these gifts often. I have a hard time accepting that God is giving me gifts because I know the desperate situation in Somalia as thousands and thousands of children are starving and others around the world are held in slavery, and yet I’m not quite sure what to make of these happenings, except to know that I am very blessed and have a responsibility to be a good steward with what I have been given. I’m wondering what you think.
This is not a new thing for me, experiencing God’s love through gifts. I have lots of stories, but this is what has happened to me in the last couple weeks. First, I received a very unexpected scholarship for some of my mounting graduate school expenses that were concerning me.
Then, on a much smaller scale, I was with my kids at Starbucks for breakfast. We ordered a bunch of stuff and I decided to splurge a little and order a breakfast sandwich for myself. I thought twice about spending the money, but asked for it anyway. When the food was coming up I glanced at my receipt and realized I wasn’t charged for the sandwich so I told him and offered to pay. He made it very clear that it was their mistake and they wouldn’t let me pay.
From there we went to Pottery Barn Kids where my daughters were buying some little ice pack deals for their school lunches. We had three. However, when we paid the clerk only charged me for two. So I told her I needed to pay for the third one. She absolutely refused to let me pay for it. By then I was looking around to see if there were hidden MSN cameras around doing a story on honesty – but the story continued.
I needed some items for my upcoming trip to the Middle East. I had a running list in my head – money belt, black scarf head covering, travel hair drier, walking shoes… I didn’t know if I wanted an over the neck wallet or one that goes around my waist; couldn’t decide. A friend is moving to London. As I sat in her living room she started offering me things – A money belt – two, yes the over the neck kind and the around the waist type. She gave me a beautiful black scarf from her travels, so much nicer than anything I would buy. And yes, you guessed it, a travel hair drier. I found a great pair of brand new Merrell walking shoes in just my size at the Thrift Store on Mercer Island for a few dollars.
Yesterday I was buying something for my daughter. We had four items and one of them rang up as $O.00. I pointed it out to the clerk. He said, “I put the code in correctly again and it still says zero, so that is what it is going to cost you.”
A good friend announced a couple weeks ago she is moving out of the area. The day she told me I felt such loss, especially as I drove to the airport to pick up a graduate student from Norway who was going to stay with us for a couple days while she got settled here. Two days has quickly become almost three weeks and many hours each day driving her and helping her figure out what needs to be done to set up to live here. We’ve spent a lot of time together. Not just good company at a difficult time, even though she is only twenty-three, amazingly she has traveled to the countries I’m preparing to go to next month and she has been a wealth of guidance and information as I prepare. We realize that she is not just a student passing through but a new member of our family; truly a gift from God.
Have you recognized God speaking your love language?
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