Love Languages
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5 (NIV)
What is your love language? The five love languages are words of affirmation, quality time, physical touch, acts of service, and receiving gifts. For me, I kind of move back and forth between quality time and acts of service. But I really enjoy a good back rub too. I have concluded that we each have more than one and it depends upon the situation. Lucy Chambers (All God’s Creatures) tell us how important it is to each have a different language. Otherwise, life is chaotic, competitive, and confusing.
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In the far southwestern tip of Ireland, I had the opportunity to watch a shepherd working his flock with two beautiful border collies, Cooper and Declan. The dogs were brothers, as alike yet as different as any siblings. Cooper was black and white; Declan had a lot of rusty red mixed in. I was fascinated to discover that Cooper only understood English and Declan only Irish.
Before they could work together to care for the sheep, the shepherd had to train them separately so they knew all the commands in their individual languages. The shepherd, a weathered young man with a lovely brogue, explained that if the dogs were to work on the same task, they would get competitive and perhaps unwittingly drive the sheep over the cliffs into the deep emerald sea below. But when each dog heard the shepherd’s voice speaking directly to him, he would only execute those commands. Then that dog would follow the command to sit while his brother accomplished a different task.
Though they were only a year and a half old, Cooper and Declan worked like cogs in a fine machine, each moving on command to follow the shepherd’s instruction. The sheep responded to the dogs’ movements and flocked together to return safely to their pasture. I thought of all the sheep analogies in the Bible—none so flattering to the sheep, but all revealing the tender care the Shepherd provides. It had never occurred to me, that not only does the Shepherd know how to tend all creatures in His care, but He also knows how to speak to us individually so we can hear His voice without being distracted by instructions or paths that are meant for others.
He has spent many years training us and He knows our love language. But do you recognize His voice?
Loving Lord, thank You for our uniqueness. Help us speak into the lives of others as we share our love—not just today on Valentine’s Day but every day. AMEN.