Roses & Thorns:

Jon:

• Rose – Daydreaming about what kind of parents we would be and planning for baby.
• Thorn – Our disagreement over household chores

Angie:

• Rose – Getting the green light to start our IUI.
• Thorn – Our disagreement over household chores

Weekly Discussion Topic/Question: What are some things we hope will happen this year – in our marriage, in our community, in faith, professionally, or otherwise?

Jon: I hope that we are able to have a baby.  As a Husband I want to learn to listen more, and argue less.  I want us to decide about moving.  I plan to try and get a a raise at work and lastly, hit my goal weight.

Angie: I too hope that we are blessed with a baby.  As a wife I hope to learn more patience.  I too want us to decided about moving.  Financially, I want us to save more money and work towards achieving our financial goals this year.  I also plan to hit my goal weight and lastly, I hope that our blog will be able to reach and help more people.

Devotional/Book Reading: Learning the Love Languages taken from Gary Chapman’s The One Year Love Language Minute Devotional

Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. – 1 John 4:11 -12

Synopsis: This reading dives a bit deeper into the five love languages, which is interesting, because I (Angie) am currently reading his book on the 5 Love Languages.  So for me this makes a lot of sense.  In essence, there are five love languages, those being: words of affirmation, receiving gifts, acts of service, quality time and physical touch.

Our takeaway: This reading urged us to discuss which of these are our primary languages.  We pretty quickly were able to determine ours.  My love language is acts of service and Jon’s is words of affirmation.  We took it a step further and asked each other if we felt that each other was speaking to each other in our language, and how we could improve.

As I mentioned, I am reading the book about this as well, and Jon plans to read it after I have finished.  Once we have both read through the book, I think we will take this discussion even further.  The great thing about the book, is that it offers exercises to help with learning and doing what makes your spouse feel most loved in the language they speak.  Anyway, more on this will probably be in another blog post where I discuss the book in length.

The key to showing your spouse love, is speaking their language. Learn it, master it and you will have a full and content marriage.

Please share your rose and thorn for the week, along with the things you hope to happen in your life this year.  If you have an opinion on the Five Love Languages, or know your own we would love to hear that too!