Five Different Ways to Show Love

Quality Time, Quantity Time, Acts of Service, Giving Gifts, and Physical Touch and Closeness. These are the five love languages according to Gary Chapman. Which of these are most important for your children? Gary Chapman says that all children under eight years old need to have all of these all the time. They don’t have any preference to any one, and prefer to have all of them met. This is a bit overwhelming. To have to give my children all of these different kinds of love seems to me allot of work! It’s a good thing children are resilient, or I would be a failure! I love Gary Chapman’s concept though. He is right. Children need lots of love, and in many different ways. This is how we impart God into their lives. God is love according to 1 John 4:16. If we can give love to our children, we are giving them God. That is deep. So even an infant can be ministered to.

I have learned through much trial and error, that children respond the best with patience and love. If you have frustration, and a quick temper, children begin to lose their self-confidence. They no longer feel like they are good enough for you. YOU are the one they most value. YOU are the biggest influence in their lives. YOU are the one they want to please. You are their image of what God wants them to be. If we as parents are not imparting God into their lives with love, what are we showing them?

Now, Gary Chapman has found five different ways to show love to a person. A child can receive any one of these and feel love. This is not so very overwhelming now, since I can choose any one of these at any time for my child. It is like having five different books to read and asking your son or daughter which book they want to read today. Of course they like them all, and would want you to read to them every single one, one right after another, and then all over again. So, which book are you going to read to your child today?