An Unintended Result

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I didn’t realize it until we had been married for a while, but I’m a sap.  At least that’s what Timothy calls me.  When he’s not calling me mushy.

I just love love.  And I love that I’m in love.  And I love to think about love.  And I love to watch movies where they fall in love and I can cry with them.  And Hallmark commercials.  And diamond ring commercials.  I tell ya, those marketing guys for diamond companies are genius.  Every time I see the commercial about the little boy and the soldier dad overseas teaming up to buy the mom a necklace, I just want to cry.  And I don’t even wear jewelry.  But moving on.

Before I got married (or was even dating anyone for that matter), my friend loaned me the 5 Love Languages book by Gary Chapman.  I thought it was pretty interesting, took the test, and found out my love language.  It was all theoretical since I didn’t have a husband, but it was still interesting.

The other day I was snooping around on my Mom’s Kindle account and saw that she had that book on there.  I immediately started reading it again.  I went online and took the test, just to find out that I had the same results as before.  So I e-mailed the test link to Timothy at work, called him 27 times, and asked him to please take it.  Enter much sap name calling.  Don’t be a hater, Gothra.  I’m just trying to love you.

He took the test and we exchanged results.  He said mine seemed to be right, but we thought his were off.  No problem, I thought.  I’ll read about ALL the love languages and love you in that way every.single.day.of.our.lives!

So I read about all the languages.  Except I kind of just skimmed the Acts of Service one.  Man, I bet he is sooo glad that Acts of Service isn’t my language.  If it were, he would have to vacuum and mop to make me feel loved.  You’re welcome, husband.

The past few days I have been trying to remember all the different languages and trying to show Timothy love in all five ways.  And I can tell he has been doing the same.  It’s good to be reminded to be intentional with your love.

But all that love reading has had an unintended result.  See, there’s this person.  Let’s call her Fiona.  Fiona drives me crazy.  She’s the thorn in my flesh.  She’s very skilled at locating each of my nerves and then pouncing all upon them.  I love her, in the Lord, but I don’t really like her.  I’m sure we all have our Fionas.

The more I have been thinking about the idea of “showing love,” the more Fiona’s face has popped into my brain.  My first thought was great.  Just great. I already love her, in the Lord.  I mean, do I need to go above and beyond that?

I’ll let you guess what God’s answer to that pathetic question was.

Oh, Fiona.  I have no clue what her love language is.  But I can grasp the concept of showing love.  And not just by loving her in the Lord, as a child of God.  But by showing love to her as a person.  By finding all the good qualities that Fiona has and then showing love to her in a way that uplifts those good qualities.

That love language book convicted me in a way I didn’t even see coming.

So what about you?  Have any of you read the book?  What is your love language?  Do you have your own Fiona?  How do you show love?  This is a place where all saps are welcome.

~Whitney

*if you don’t know your love language, or would like to learn more about them, you can go here.