What's Your Love Language?

I had an epiphany today! At our in-service we learned about the five love languages. And as I sat there listening to the different groups present their love language, my past was flashing before my eyes haha. When we have a significant other, we need to be conscious of how they like to be loved and how they show love, among other things. I believe if we could figure this out while we are in a relationship so many problems would be eliminated. To truly understand this, here are the five love languages:

#1 Words of Affirmation: You need to hear praise to know you are loved and you may also prefer to express your affection verbally. Negative comments cut right to the bone. You want to hear that you're loved and how much and why. This could be done in the form of compliments, kind words of recognition, thank you notes, "just because" notes, cards, etc.

#2 Gifts: You are moved by presents and physical tokens of affection. It's the fact that someone is thinking about you enough to give you something that moves you. You also like to give personalized gifts to show your love for someone. The monetary value is not important, only the sentiment with which they were intended.

#3 Touch: You want to give and/or receive affection physically. This would be someone who loves to hug, hold hands, high five, etc.

#4 Acts of Service: You prefer to show your love through favors and chores and doing things for others. You feel put-upon and unappreciated when your efforts are taken for granted.

#5 Quality Time: This can be expressed either through those intimate tete-a-tete discussions or just by doing things together. You enjoy spending time with the people you love and it is very important for you to feel included.

So now that you know maybe you can fit yourself into one of these categories. Obviously these descriptions are just skimming the surface, but you get the jist of what they mean. If you are a "words of affirmation" person in a relationship with an "acts of service" person and you don't know it, issues could arise. The "acts of service" person may be doing wonderful things for you but you aren't appreciating them because you aren't recognizing that that is how they show love. And since you aren't thanking them for all of the help they are giving, they feel like what they did was pointless. And on the same token, the "acts of service" person isn't realizing that the "words of affirmation" person is just looking for a simple compliment or for their significant other to tell them how much they love them. So I leave you with this challenge: continue learning about the people in your life - your family, your friends, your boyfriend or girlfriend, and most importantly yourself. Find out what your love language is and what their love languages are. Then use that new knowledge to your advantage and start showing love the way that particular person best feels it. Your relationships will grow stronger because of it. Apply this knowledge to past relationships: I guarantee it will answer some questions and you will be better off in future relationships. When I think about the people in my life, it is rather easy to fit them into their love language. I have a new found appreciation to those who may have a different love language than me. Not only will I be able to show love, I will be able to acknowledge and be grateful when I am being shown love in a way outside of my language.

Go now and take the quiz! Let me know your result so I can show you some love ;)