What once seemed so obvious now seems so normal. ‘Tis the season in my hometown for highlighted hair and bright colors on toenails. When I first moved here ten years ago, the style statement stood out to my fresh eyes. Now, I hardly notice.
Love language has a way of changing over time if we let our culture press in. Relevant magazine just posted a list of Top 10 Relationship Killers, originally shared on truelovedates.com by Debra Fileta. Though a marriage may begin with vows and promises, when we listen to, spend time with, and begin to accept the ways of the world we live in, our love language can follow worldly patterns. Words we become accustomed to using may carve out the course our relationships follow.
Words of compromise may begin to seep into our thoughts or our conversations. Debra Fileta says, “Phrases like, ‘We’re too different’ or ‘We’ve grown apart’ or ‘Life has just gotten the best of us’ sound so innocent, yet are extremely lethal.” Communication skills take on the sounds and look of the world where we live, if we aren’t constantly renewing our minds and hearts.
What’s the word-style around your married life?
Listen for lethal language in places like:
- the entertainment you watch/listen to (don’t disregard humor)
- the voices of non-biblical counselors or advisors
- advice or personal talk from relatives, married or not
- friends who have their own ideas about marriage
- those relationship articles in magazines and blogs (!)
What’s the word-style IN your married life?
A standard for communication skills
If we aren’t careful, the toxic talk around us between husbands and wives will change what we accept as loving language. Our standard of evaluating our verbage should stay the same is Jesus is our Lord and His word is our guide. Neither time or generation or status or economy or age or region changes the way love sounds between a husband and wife. Our communication skills should be more like Christ and less like the world we live in.
Does your couple-talk sound more like your culture or more like Christ? Let’s make this prayer the fresh desire of our hearts today, as we aim to speak love to the one we love.
“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.”
(Ps. 19:14)
TWEET THIS > Does your couple-talk sound more like your culture or more like Christ? http://wp.me/p2H4E4-1De #MarriageMondays #Communication
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