Love Languages

Today I reorganized a few of our kitchen cupboards. I threw out spices that pre-dated our marriage, conceded that we probably wouldn't ever make use of the mini-baster and made room for some new glassware. It may be the highlight of my year.

Glowing with the success of it all, I summoned my beloved over to marvel at my marvelous-ness. I opened drawer number one and showed him the glory of sorted measuring spoons and Kitchen Aid attachments;  he slipped his arm around me and started to nuzzle my neck.

It is at moments like these that I realize that men and women were not intended to live together. Full time.  Probably we are better suited to more short-term meet-and-greets.

I slammed his arms away and shouted (yes, shouted) "God dammit! No! My love language is WORDS OF AFFIRMATION! Yours is touch. Not. Mine."  Wisely, he laughed and asked for a do-over, so I closed the drawer and then dramatically reopened it, at which point he said most sincerely, "That looks great. Thank you so much for putting so much time into this. I feel better already. Thanks."  I said, "You're welcome" and walked away, still kind of irked.  If you weren't clear before now, be clear: he is the better person in our marriage most days.

So obviously, he left for work and I dwelled (dwelt?) on this most of the night. Not so much the specific situation but the relentless work of sharing life with someone who needs almost the opposite of what I do to feel loved. And then I caught myself wondering, but what's God's love language? Is the Creator of All a sucker for Receiving Gifts? And aren't we all kind of screwed if it's Physical Touch? I may be up all night worrying about this.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think I decided I was glad that the Father knows that my own preference is affirmation with a sprinkling of quality time. I'm pretty sure I heard, "Drawers look great!" while we were watching the hockey game tonight...

PS:  Do you know how hard it is to avoid the male pronoun for God? I'm not passionate about it and obviously use male-centric labels and names often. But it bugs me and I wish it wasn't so hard.

PPS: Do you know how annoying spell check is when you make up as many words as I do?