Hey Mount Family!

Here is Lesson 13 of "What's Your Love Language?". The focus is on Acts of Service.

You can view the PDF by clicking the link below or downloading the attachment.

You can also check out the video on our church's Facebook or YouTube pages.

06-03-20 Five Love Languages Lesson 13 (Acts of Service)

Here's the Story We Mentioned Today...
Andre caught a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror and shook his head. What a sight. On his knees in front of a toilet. Rubber gloves pulled up to his elbows. A can of cleanser in one hand and a scrub brush in the other.

If the guys on his rugby team could see him now. Check that. If his father could see him now.

The old man was a firm believer in dividing household chores along gender lines. The husband mowed the lawn in the summer, shoveled snow in the winter, and fixed anything that was broken. The wife did everything else.

Suddenly Andre felt sorry for his dad. The old man probably never experienced the payoff that comes from completing a surprise act of service for his wife. Andre grinned as he thought about his own wife’s reaction to his latest surprise act.

She would come home to find not just a spotless bathroom but a new shower curtain, rug, towel set, and toilet-paper holder—the very ones she’d pointed out to him in a catalog (and then mistakenly assumed he’d forgotten about).

She’d scream, of course. Hold her hand over her mouth in amazement. Notice and comment on every little detail, right down to the toothbrush holder that was no longer gunked-up with dried toothpaste. Laugh in embarrassment as tears roll down her cheeks. Wrap her arms around him for a long, sensual hug. Whisper in his ear how lucky she is to be married to such a caring, thoughtful, surprising … attractive man.

Suddenly Andre felt sorry for anyone who wasn’t him.

A HARD-EARNED HAPPILY EVER AFTER

You might conclude that Andre and his wife are a match made in love language heaven. And you’d be right … though it wasn’t always that way. Andre didn’t telepathically pick up on his wife’s fondness for acts of service the first time they met. He wasn’t some linguistic savant who started speaking her love language fluently right away.

Andre and his wife endured years of doubt, frustration, annoyance, and confusion as they struggled to make their relationship work, to make their needs known to each other, and to find ways to meet those needs. In their darkest hours, they questioned whether they were really meant to be together.

Even after Andre discovered his wife’s love language, he struggled with learning acts of service. He argued that the things he was already doing—putting gas in the car, taking out the trash, bringing home the lion’s share of their household income—should count as acts of service. He expected his wife to feel loved based on those things. In essence, he wanted her to change her needs to fit his solutions. It took awhile for him to figure out—and then come to grips with—the kinds of acts that meant most to her.

Cleaning the bathroom, for one.

His progress was slow but steady. With practice (and more than a little trial and error), Andre eventually became fluent in acts of service—and you can too.