"the language of love"

I can speak just enough Chinese for Chinese people to not understand a single word I am trying to say. 

 

It is not that I haven't studied or practiced.  For what's it worth, I have given speaking Chinese a lot of effort.  Too true is the phrase, "Do not confuse effort with results".

 

It is here that I find myself.  

 

I have so much I want to say in Chinese.  I want to express and convey emotion that only a Mandarin dialect can provide.  I want to fluently speak with the boys that I love so much in their native tongue.  I want to speak Chinese.  And so, I will continue to practice.

 

Love language can be very similar.  If not respectful and appreciative for differences, we can receive the love we are looking for and never even know it, because it comes by a path we are not even looking for it to come. 

 

We have had some struggle with positive communication with one of our loves. We want to hold, hug, and show our son the physical affection he deserves.  We want to show him the affection he should have always have had, and rarely received.

 

There has been some success, but all too often, failure to peak the moment with physical affection seems to prevail again and again.

 

But then there are mornings like this morning when our son disappeared to his room for about thirty minutes.

 

As he came back down the stairs, we asked where he was, what he was doing, and why had he been gone for so long.  

 

"Come see", came the sheepish reply.

 

So we went up the stairs to find that our 14 year old son wasn't doing anything you would expect any average teenager to be doing in his room alone.

 

We walked into the room and found that he had not only made his bed, but made the three other beds his brothers sleep in.  He cleaned around and under the beds.  He swept the floor, put away clothes, and cleaned the closet.

 

He was so proud and expected nothing less from us.  We showered him in praise!

 

Some people have a light bulb moment.  I had more of a stadium lighting moment.

 

"Maybe our child shows love differently than I do", was my epiphany.  

 

Genius, I know.  

 

What a time for worship and to call upon the Holy Spirit to tie our family together, using many different languages of love, all blending and standing independently at the same time to create this beautiful entity, our family.

 

We serve a complex God.  We serve a complex Holy Spirit.  Holy Spirit, please mold our family into the vessel you require us to be.  Make us into that super complex living, breathing organism, called the Christian family, bent on only serving you, even to the dismay of all others.

 

It is only you we look to.  It is only you we live for. It is only you we obey. 

 

"For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end." 

 

Psalms 48:14