Another month, and another chapter from The Life Giving Home. But before I delve into it, I wanted to give you a little update from January’s chapter. In that chapter, Clarkson says that she always greets her children in the morning with loving affirmations. I decided to try that, too.
I’ll be honest, when I did it, my kids groaned a bit and said, “Oh, mommy!” But I noticed now that even though they still roll their eyes at me, they also smile when I give the affirmation, and now they happily expect it.
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This month in The Life Giving Home: Creating a Place of Belonging & Becoming by Sally & Sarah Clarkson, the theme is, appropriately, love.
What really stood out to me in this chapter is that to love well, you have to have the time to love well. You have to make loving your family a priority.
I know that sounds strange, but making time is imperative. Clarkson talks about finding out what your children’s love languages are so that you can love them in the way that they most appreciate. (She also reminds us busy moms to make time to love our husbands and make them a priority.)
I learned my kids’ love languages four years ago when we started homeschooling, but now I think it’s time for a refresher.
Another take away from this chapter is to make spending one-on-one time with each of your children a priority. In addition, she says you should set aside time for your husband. He shouldn’t have to compete with the kids for your attention.
Finally, Clarkson also mentioned finding time to love your friends well, especially when they’re going through hard times. This can be as simple as texting someone or inviting them over to your house for breakfast and a chat. It doesn’t have to be a fancy night out.
This chapter felt less tangible to me than January’s chapter, but I did find some steps I’ll take to improve our family relationships and make our house more loving. Time to order the love language books from the library!
I’m joining several other bloggers who are working their way through this book throughout the year. (Thanks, Kids, Crunch, and Christ for hosting!)
How do you make your family members feel loved?
Hugs… My guys are so into touch its amazing
Very good practical advice! I definitely agree that learning people’s love languages and how to “speak” them is an important step in loving them well. Being aware of love languages has helped our family get along and understand each other better.
I haven’t read this book before. It sounds interesting. I learned about love languages from a marriage group years ago and was fascinated by the different types! We would assume everyone views actions, gestures, words in the same loving way but it’s not the case. Definitely an eye opener for my husband and me. My kids love the quality time of having even 10 minutes of story time or game time. I am one who likes having a conversation about our day to reflect on good things and challenges. Just a nice way to connect.
My kids love the 10 minutes of dedicated attention, too.
I love that. One of my favorite meme quotes goes along with this:
http://media.ldscdn.org/images/media-library/by-speaker/president-dieter-f-uchtdorf/meme-uchtdorf-love-time-1282491-wallpaper.jpg
Excellent quote!!
This book sounds absolutely amazing. I do think that I need to learn my kids love language a little more. There are definitely things I could do better.