This Sunday, we will begin a series on The 5 Love Languages, by Gary Chapman.

The idea is that we give, and receive, love in different ways. If we are expressing our love to  someone in a certain way and that someone doesn’t connect our ‘certain way’ with love, then we will constantly be misunderstanding each other, sadly feeling more and more empty, a downward spiral of confusion, disappointment, loneliness, and resentment.

It would be impossible for me to overstate the importance of this concept in my life. Everytime I try to describe it, I sound like a voice-over for a reality show, “THE BIGGEST/MOST SHOCKING (rose ceremony, challenge, elimination, whatever) EVER.” So, I’ll try not to do that.

This morning, I heard another story that broke my heart (it seems there’s one every day!!), I ask “why?” How did it ever get so bad? What could have been so broken to make them feel that was a reasonable solution? And the answer is the same as it’s always been – love. You know what it feels like when he looks at you like he has been waiting to see you, like there is no one else on earth that he would have rather seen? Or, when she looks at you, whispers, “I’m so proud of you,” and she may as well have giant red hearts in her eyes like a cartoon character? When you open a gift from out of the clear blue sky, for no reason at all, and it is just perfect? When you stand in line and he reaches over and takes your hand in his own and the volume on the world gets turned down, when the noise becomes music? When you get home and he has already done the first 2 things on the to-do list, before you’ve even made the to-do list? You know what those things feel like? Well, some people don’t.

We (and by we, I mean me) have to start with loving each other well, in our own languages, so maybe the next story we hear will heal instead of break, reconciliation instead of separation, connection instead of the familiar drifting apart, repair instead of another dismantling. All of this starts this Sunday, at 10:30, please join us.