Book Report

As part of the curriculum for my Emotional Healing training, I have to read quite a few books. I just finished one called THE FIVE LOVE LANGUAGES by Dr. Gary Chapman. Rather than discuss it with you, I'm going to be presumptuous enough to post my own book report. (I have to do a short book report on every required book I read.)
Here goes:

Reading The Five Love Languages was quick, fun, and entertaining. One of my daughters and I took the profile test together to discover our love languages, and I had even more fun teasing my spouse and asking about his. I’m looking forward to reading The Five Love Languages of Children. However, as I pondered on what I’d read and how to apply it, I decided that some information was missing from the book. Dr. Chapman never addressed the idea of learning to accept love in a ‘foreign’ language. He, in no way, encouraged his readers to realize that our spouses may be working very hard to express their love for us. Dr. Chapman puts all the responsibility on the individual husband/wife for letting the spouse know he/she is loved. He never addresses the possibility that the spouse could learn to recognize the love language of his/her partner. I think this is a sad exclusion.

Maybe I’m just fortunate to have been raised with the teachings of recognizing the efforts of others, or of truly trying to live the golden rule. I’m aware of many other teachings from various child-rearing experts and marriage counselors that say we should always verbally express our love, and that hugs and physical touch are necessary for human thriving. Various religious leaders encourage their congregations to realize that acts of service are evidence of love. I believe there is individual responsibility for recognizing the efforts of one’s spouse to communicate his/her love to you.

That said, and after another fun discussion with my spouse, I think Dr. Chapman does have a good thing going because there is a great deal of comfort in knowing that I have effectively communicated my love to my spouse. I want to be sure that my husband knows how extremely much I love him, and for that to happen, I need to know and speak his love language. Dr. Chapman has provided an easily read, interesting book to help couples understand each other and express their love to each other appropriately. So, I will be passing this book along to my children and their spouses, and also instigating some fun dinner table conversations about the topic of love languages.