Have you ever been a little disappointed by a gift your husband gave you? Maybe you sometimes feel like your partner “just doesn’t get you”? Romantic relationships can be wonderful, but they can be hard work as well. One key to staying connected for the long haul is understanding your partner’s “Love Languages.” Carrie Little from Family & Children’s Services stopped by GDGC to give us a crash course in Love Languages.
What are Love Languages?
They’re the styles in which we love and want to be loved. There are six Love Languages: Do, Be, Give, Encourage, Talk and Touch. Each of us identifies with one of these styles more than all the other five.
- Do means that you like to actually do things for your partner and like your partner to do things for you. Actions.
- Be means that you like to spend quality time with your partner, even when that quality time is just sitting in a room together doing nothing.
- Give means you like to give and get tangible gifts. This doesn’t have to be expensive, it can be very simple.
- Encourage means you like to receive encouragement from your partner and like to give it as well. A simple, “I am so proud of you,” goes far with an encouragement person.
- Talk is self explanatory. You like to talk with your partner and cherish that time.
- Touch is also self explanatory; you like to be in physical contact with your partner… a lot.
So how do we know what our partner’s Love Language is?
Ask her! If she can’t identify it, we have classes called Forever. For Real. that you can attend with your partner and figure it out together. But the point is to TALK about it! You cannot expect your partner to read your mind. It is your responsibility to tell the other what you want and need. Then comes the fun part of you following through with your partner’s realistic wishes. I say realistic, meaning if your love language, for example, is Give… it might not be realistic to except diamonds all the time. Once you determine what your language is, work on helping your partner meet your needs in a realistic way.
There’s a new Forever. For Real. class getting ready to start up again. Tell us a little about it.
It’s for both new couples and people who’ve been together for years and years, and just want a tune-up. We work on improving communication skills, ways to have fun together, how to manage conflict and so much more. The class meets two hours a week for six weeks starting on September 6 and, the best part about it – it’s free. To register, simply give Family & Children’s Services a call at (918) 560-1135.
fcsok.org
