Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church…. Likewise, teach the older women…to train the younger women to love their husbands and children… so that no one will malign the word of God.  Ephesians 5:24, Titus 2:3-5

When my dad would teach on relationships, he told a joke that was funny, sad and probably true in a lot of relationships.  A woman who was asked, “When did your husband last tell you, ‘I love you’?” The wife answered with “years ago!”  Then they brought in her husband, and he gave exactly the same answer: “I told her that I loved her when I married her,” he said, “and I also told her that if I ever changed my mind, I’d tell her that too!”

Of course, “I love you,” can be communicated with or without words. Dr. Gary Chapman explains that there are “love languages” which he describes as touch, gifts, acts of service, words of affirmation and quality time. Some cultures never verbalize love, and people who come from homes where parents, dads especially, never expressed love verbally, may find it hard to do.

This love thing was all God’s idea.  “For God so loved,” says the Bible, that He gave…” (John 3:16), and “We love…because He first loved us.” God designed us in such a way that one of our deep emotional needs is to give and receive love.  We need it every single day and followers of Jesus are to be known by this quality of love.

When did you last say “I love you,” or ask, “What would make you feel loved today?” It might be a hug, a treat or a special activity that spells l-o-v-e to your spouse, kids, parents, siblings or friends.

 

Resource reading: 1 John 4:7-21