Love In Any Language

Taken from the Live Like You Are Dying Daily Readings … Week 3; Day 2

“Je t’aime.”

“Ich liebe dich.”

“Ti amo.”

“Mimi nakupenda.”

“Techihhila.”

“Nanun tongshinum sarang hamnida.”

Recognize any of these?  They all say the same thing in French, German, Italian, Swahili, Sioux, and Korean.  They are the most important words you would want to speak if you were going to speak sweeter and you had a limited amount of time to do it.  You know what they are.  They are the words, “I love you” – the most important words in any language, and yet sometimes, the hardest to say.

In our family, when we say our goodbyes over the phone to each other we always say, “I love you.”  It’s standard procedure and sometimes feel a little dorky (especially to my kids when they are around their friends) but if you knew your condition was terminal you would not want to shortchange anyone from even one expression of love. 

I just spoke today with a friend recovering from open-heart surgery.  I wouldn’t call him a really close friend necessarily, but at the end of the conversation I had the strongest urge to tell him I loved him.  Now I wouldn’t normally do that at this stage in a relationship, but it was his physical fragility and proximity to death that brought it out.  I’m pretty sure I was saying:   “Hey, I’m just starting to really like you, and I almost lost you.  We’re going to spend eternity together, but no so darn fast!”  I’m not sure I completely know why, but when life is precious, love is easier to express.

Romans 12:9-10 (NLT) says, “Don’t just pretend that you love others.  Really love them.  Hate what is wrong.  Stand on the side of the good.  Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.”

Love is always a big part of any equation in the Body of Christ.  Here Paul challenges us to love with genuine affection.  And I believe we are speaking here of love both lived out and spoken.

Some may be quick to point out that love only spoken falls short of love acted out, but neither one of these should be taken at the expense of the other.  We all need verbal reaffirmation of love.  You can’t just know you are loved.  You can’t run year after year on the unspoken assumption that someone loves you.  We need to hear it.  We hear it from the Word of God over and over and we can never get enough.  We need to hear it from each other as well.

A good idea would be to say, “I love you,” when it’s not expected.  Our family habit of saying “I love you” when we hang up the phone is fine, but an “I love you” in the middle of the day or the middle of a sentence shows that you are actually thinking about your love for someone.  It’s not just a habit.  It’s a real expression from the heart.  God knows we all need that, in any language.

Reflective thoughts –

1.        What are some of the barriers you have to verbalizing your love?  What can you do to overcome those barriers?

2.       How many times a day do you say “I love you” in your family?  Increase that number today!

3.       Think about how you can speak your love in more unexpected ways.  How can you remind yourself to do this?