Spiritual Languages

Patrick and I are currently in a marriage class at our church. We are going through a book entitled I Love You More, and each chapter discusses different ways to improve our marriage. This past week we talked about our time spent as a couple with the Lord. Most Christian couples recognize this time with the Lord as one of the most important aspects of a healthy marriage, but they find themselves most dissatisfied with their progress. One of the reasons for this is that we as people have different spiritual languages.

Many people are familiar with the five love languages, or the five ways that we show love to one another and recieve love from them. According to Gary Thomas, the author of Spiritual Pathways, we also have spiritual languages, or ways that we relate and feel most energized toward God. Listed below are the different languages and a very brief description.

Tradition: loving God through rituals, sacraments, and symbols
Vision: loving God by dreaming a great dream
Relationships: loving God by being around other people
Intellectual Thought: seeking God with the mind
Service: loving God by loving others
Contemplations: loving God in a quiet pursuit
Activism: loving God by warring against injustice
Worship: loving God through joyful celebration

Each person will find that he or she feels most energized spiritually when loving God through one or a few of these avenues. Recognizing that you and your spouse have unique spiritual languages is essential in spending quality time together with the Lord. For example, Patrick and I had really been struggling at feeling spiritually unified as we studied the Bible. He had been intellectually spending time with the Lord by reading theology books along with his Bible. He was feeling so spiritually energized through them that he wanted me to read the theology books with him. It did almost nothing for me in terms of closeness to the Lord because I feel closest to God in contemplation.

We were clashing in our spiritual paths--both wanting the other to conform to our way of meeting with God. After we assessed our spiritual pathways, we discovered that we both feel close to the Lord when in nature and through musical worship. With this knowledge, we are now able to spend quality time together with the Lord in unity.

The Lord is Good!

Well, it's been quite a while since I wrote last, but I have to say that the Lord has done quite a bit in the meantime. Patrick and I have met our 303 neighbors, and we LOVE them! They are strong Christians, have been married for about a year, and they are still in their undergraduate work like we are! We have had a blast getting to know them. And what is more, Stephanie and Trevvor have been a spiritual refreshment to us. Their desire to please the Lord results in our lifestyles being very much the same. So, in all reality, they have ministered to us more than we have ministered to them. How good the Lord is to give us friends who are so close in vicinity who are also close in spirit!

The Daily Grind

Well, it's Thursday now, and the worry-free, work-free days of vacation are long gone. Patrick is working hard on a paper, and I am doing the never-ending task of house work. You know, it's easy to get caught up in the mundane activities of life. In mine and Patrick's lives, this often leads to questions like, "How could God use me here? All I do is school work or house work? I'm NEVER going to get to ministry! " But all it takes is stepping back and looking at God's word to see that this is not truly the case. There are so many simple commands the Lord gives us that can be carried out every day. In Luke 10:27, Jesus tells us to "love your neighbor as yourself." 1 Corinthians 13 gives me plenty of instruction on how to love others, including my neighbors. In other words, there is plenty of room for ministry right where we are. For Patrick, his area of ministry is in his classroom. For me, my area of ministry is right across the hall at apartment 303 or down stairs at 203. The Lord has given us so many opportunities for ministry right at our fingers. We need look no further than next door.

If I'm honest with myself, I know that the daily grind will always be a part of life, but that doesn't mean that it should stand in the way of ministering to others. If I don't start now reaching out, how will graduation or a new job make that any easier?

One Year of Wedded Bliss

Patrick and I just returned yesterday from our first wedding anniversary trip. We had so much fun! We traveled to Birmingham on Friday afternoon, and checked into the bed and breakfast in which we would be staying for the weekend. Cobb Lane Bed and Breakfast (www.cobblanebedandb.com) was wonderful! It was decorated and furnished like an old Victorian estate. We stayed in the country french suite, and it was fabulous! Through the weekend, we visited the Vulcan statue and museum, and Oak Mountain's petting zoo and stables, where we rode horses through the woods. On Sunday we ended the trip with a visit to the Birmingham zoo.

The trip was a great time for Patrick and me to reminisce about our first year together as husband and wife. We have truly had a wonderful year. Of course there were ups and downs, and we stayed very busy with term papers, school reading, big projects, and trips to visit the family. But when we looked back over the year and saw all we had gone through and experienced together, we decided that we wouldn't have had it any other way.