love languages

There is a book by Gary Chapman entitled The Five Love Languages. I got this from his website. A love language is the way we express our devotion and commitment, and it can be learned or changed to touch the hearts of our friends, partners or anyone. Whether you’re a spouse, a parent, or a single, the five love languages are the same:

1. Words of Affirmation
2. Receiving Gifts
3. Quality Time
4. Acts of Service
5. Physical Touch

I think they are pretty self-explanatory, however, I’ll breeze through them.

Words-You feel love in receiving praise and affirmation.
Gifts-You feel love by the receiving of gifts.
Time-You feel loved when someone spends time with you.
Service-You feel loved when someone does something for you, whether it be big or small.
Touch-You feel loved when you are touched, i.e. hugged, etc.

A lot of us have one or two of these that stand out and of course we usually feel love in all of these ways. For myself, I can tell you that the top two for me are Time & Touch, then the other follow, not that I am not excited or feel blessed by the others, it is just that for me, if you want to spend time with me and you make that a priority, that is going to speak so much louder than anything.

Not only is this how I like to be loved this is how I love others. I think sometimes we need to learn our friends love languages. I have a friend whose love languages are gifts and service. I know this and for them to give me a gift or do to something for me is how they show their affection. I know this and are appreciative and know that this is their expression. At the same time, for me, time is what is most important. To me, spending time with me means more than anything. It shows that you know that it is important to me and so you make an effort to spend that time with me, even if it not necessarily convenient.

Look at yourself and think, what are those things that are important to you. I think that is it important to let others know and that way not only can they love you better, but you can love them better. I think it is a compromise, we need to learn to express in their love language and the same time they should do the same.

Any thoughts?

If you want more information or would like to look up Gary Chapman’s book, here is his site: http://www.fivelovelanguages.com/start.html

P.S. for pictures of the new kitty, go to my photos link on the right and click on New Kitty.

a new mommy??

I am going to be a new mommy!

I got home last night all prepared to work out and run! I have to get ready for the Cherry Creek Sneak. (April 30th)

My roommate asks, what are you doing tonight?. I told her, she asks, want to go to the Dumb Friends and look at doggies and kitties. Golly, do I want to go look at kitties?

So we go and look at kitties and doggies and what not. We sign up to look at some, just so we can pet them and love them. Wellll, yeah so Emily sees this little red tabby and wants to look at it.

So the lady goes and gets him. He is about 2 months old and poor thing has a cold. It was so sad, poor thing. The worse part is…he totally loved us. Crawled up under our chins purring & sneezing. So of course you KNOW what happened.

We just fell in love and of course we want him to get better and of course he wouldn’t do that in a shelter. He comes home tonite.

His name is going to be Weasleby. Yes a Harry Potter name. After all he is a RED tabby.

Crazy cat ladies, that is what you can call us! I’ll post some pictures as soon as we get them.

do we 'really' understand?

It is Tuesday, thought with being off yesterday it throws me for a loop.

I managed to make it up to Greeley for church on Sunday. Thankfully, I had a great prayer time on the way up. It is amazing, more than not I end up turning off the radio and just spend time in prayer.

Shane’s sermon was on “Understanding the Gospel”. Which you might be thinking, oh we all know what that means. Well honestly, I have been going to St. Patrick for about 3 years and before that Christ Community in Franklin for 6 years prior to that and it hasn’t been until just recently that I have some sense of a grasp of what the Gospel truly is about.

Luke 15:11-31 is the story of the two brothers. It is a representative of the two spectrums of sin. The youngest son was the one who had asked for his inheritance early and went and squandered it. It reflects on us today, when we go to other things or addictions for life instead of God. The addiction controls you, you are constantly needing it in order to get life, but the thing is, it is like beating your head against a brick wall, it isn’t fulfilling you or giving you life at all.

The eldest brother was the one who followed the rules and found his identity in his own self-righteousness. Who was he following the rules for? The answer is himself. He wanted his reward for staying with his father.

The problem is most of us live here. We don’t see ourselves ‘following the rules’ as the same as the youngest son. However, if we are going to anything other than God for life, then we are sinning.

Any sin rooted in the inordinate lust for something that we believe can deliver us from your basic alienation from the Father. The Gospel says we have been restored to complete relationship with the Father because of what our Savior Jesus has accomplished for us. Therefore, in sin we are always “forgetting’ what God has done for us in Christ and instead we are being moved by an idol that promised the same thing. Martin Luther said that to fail to believe God accept us fully in Christ and to look to something else is a failure to keep the first commandment-love God with all the heart. Thus beneath ANY particular sin is the general sin of rejecting CHRIST-salvation and indulging in SELF-salvation or in other words, being our own Gods.

God’s love is what we are looking for in everything. God loves us so much that He was willing to lose Himself in order to give us life.

So..basically, the Gospel is realizing that God loves us beyond our own comprehension. That HE is what we need to get life. We can not find life in rules or in our addictions, but in the realization that God loves us so much, that He did lose Himself for us.

reflection

I have been working through lunch today, so I thought I would take a quick moment and do my blog today.

Been debating, I have been having some deep thoughts lately. Do I do it on motivation? Or should I be reflective on the year….hmmmm.

Reflection is it. 2005. I had a friend say, “That is so last year.” I have to say it was a year of change for me. 2004 brought new friends, new experiences, however this past year was a year of upheaval and at times I didn’t know if I was going to make it.

It started out like any other year. ha ha…actually I think I was sleeping because I had gone snowshoeing with Terry that day.

I was pretty involved with my Star Wars group, in fact, I had just become the CO-CR, that is vice president for the lay person.

It started out pretty good, it was about the end of April the beginning of May where things went south. Though I had just gotten back from one of the best vacations of my life, Celebration III. Imagine, 4 days of Star Wars 24/7. People from all over the globe. It was amazing.

So, I won’t get into everything that happened the next few months, but needless to say, everything I knew to be stable and steady was thrown out the door. Emotionally, physically and mentally.

I was looking at things this past weekend and really had to stop and thank God for His mercy and for His protection. Admittedly I have made some serious mistakes, some within the past couple of weeks. However, God’s mercy is so gracious…He has protected me, even at times from myself. He has put people into my life to really help guide me. I have spoken about this before, how almost complete strangers have come to me and told me things they had no idea about and really helped confirm the direction my life was going.

God is gracious and I thank Him everyday for bringing me through the, well hell of last year. Granted it has strengthen my relationship with Him and with some dear friends. However, one would think there could be an easier way. Ha ha ha

I guess the point to this blog is that God is gracious and regardless of what is going on. His will is what we need to seek. I believe that He will bring people and show us where He wants us to be. Even though we might choose differently. Trust me, I would be choosing differently. I would choose the ‘Easy’ Button. Like in the Staples commercials.

I just hate waiting. I was talking to Deborah yesterday, I said, well this isn’t in my hands anymore…and I was reminded of something she said to me. “Was ever really IN your hands?”

it is a new year

Happy New Year! I know a couple days late, but better late than never.

It has been an interesting couple of weeks. Actually, I am back from the land of the dead, for the most part at least.

I have been pretty sick, it was either one of two things or both. Walking pneumonia and/or Whopping Cough. YES, Whopping Cough of all things. It took three visits to the doctor and ALMOST one trip to the emergency room to find this out. One night, breathing was not my friend.

I would say I am about 85% back to normal. It is GREAT to be back to the office. I will say it is when you are sick you find out who the people that really care about you are. I had a co-worker drive me to the doctor, since walking was even a challenge. I had another friend bring dinner and plenty of DVDs to keep me occupied. Everyone at work was more concerned with me being well, then with me missing work. My roommate was also great carting me around.

I have to say that I am truly blessed. Though my Christmas was pretty much a bust, I had a great New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Got to see a couple of movies, one being ‘Narnia’. So over all, a great start to the new year.

AND thanks to a couple of very dear friends, I will be traveling to Ireland this March. So…I am really excited and just looking forward to what this year has in store.

I finally got back to reading the ‘Captivating’ yesterday and will post more about that. God is really speaking to my heart through this book and it very exciting.

So again, Happy New Year to all!