Love is in the air!

Happy Easter everyone. My mom is guest posting this blog, enjoy!

At Easter time, I always think about how much God loves us. Not the “Valentineee” love but, the sacrificial kind of love and today it made me think of my children. I love my girls very much and through the years they have made me very happy. I love to just BE with them. I am happiest when I know that they are just going to hang out with me. That’s called “Quality Time.” It’s my love language. They don’t need to buy me things. They don’t need to do things for me…just hang out a bit.

I learned about The Five Love Languages at Waters Edge Church… (Side note right now, if you don’t have a church and want a message that is relevant to your life, Stu’s messages are always meaningful. You can come to a location in Hampton Roads or listen on line @ watersedgechurch.net. You WILL NOT be disappointed.) And then I discovered that the same writer explaining adult love languages also wrote one for parents of children. The book is titled The Five Love Languages of Children by Gary Chapman, PhD & Ross Campbell, M.D. (ISBN -13: 978-1-881273-65-3). It’s an easy read and I highly recommend it.

The five loves languages are quality time, physical touch, acts of service, words of affirmation, and gifts. The book explains that children around age 5 begin to have preference over one act of love to another (even though we/they need all five). Then, it explains each love language and gives practical examples for making that child feel loved. I was even surprised that it threw caution to some of our practices as parents. I gave a parent workshop about the book and moms & dads were nodding approval the whole time. They could see their child’s preferences and loved the ideas.

I have some ideas for my grandchildren that I will do soon. Emma, age 9 (gifts), will get a little present in the mail from me. For children that like gifts, it’s not as much about the gift as it is the surprise…the unwrapping. Brayden, age 10 (quality time), will soon be asked to come to my preschool and teach the little ones a lesson for me. It will take us some time together to put that lesson in order and he loves to teach. Anna, age 10 (words of affirmation) will get a note from me that I’ll send to her teacher to read to her and I’ll praise her for doing so well on a presentation (or something) that she has worked hard to accomplish. Taylor, age 6 (quality time), will be picked up from school and taken for an afternoon of making her feel special. None of the things are hard or costly to accomplish but, I oh so want them to always know that they are loved by me.

What about you? Would it be worth your time to read this book? If you have children/grandchildren or will have children/grandchildren, you’ll gain lots of ideas for showing love. What I’ve provided is the BOOK REPORT and not the detail. Make the book an Easter gift to yourself. Happy reading and most of all Happy Easter!