Love Saves Every Day!

This charming work is by Hyoin Min from Seoul Korea

Surprise!

I love surprises! In searching for the perfect image to top off this follow-up post on Showing the Love, I came across this charming illustration from an artist in Seoul, Korea, where my husband and I lived for almost two years. Not only do I love her style, but the text says it all. Love does save the day. In fact, it saves every day.

Beyond borders

Expanding even beyond the borders of marriage, love brings hope and joy to all of our human relationships. It's no wonder why, either, because as an ancient author who penned a famous letter wrote,

 "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud  or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance."

Takers
From my offer in Best Marriage Advice Ever I've had several 'takers'. When I promised, quite on a whim, to  visually 'translate' folk's relational advice, I had no idea how much fun it would be. You may see a couple of these images in The King and Queen of Hearts and Love Takes Time.

The most recent advice came from my friend, Rebecca, who blogs at rebeccaphill.blogspot.com was to

 "Never under estimate the power of the The 5 Love Languages."

To this I have to shout out a big, "Amen!"This philosophy simply states that we all have a 'primary language' that we most fluently understand as love.

1.) Words of affirmation
2.) Gifts
3.) Acts of service
4.) Physical touch
5.) Quality time

As promised, I have interpreted Rebecca's sage piece of advice.
It's all yours. If you like, it print it. Send it. Share it. Let it be a reminder to speak the languages of love.

'The Five Languages of Love.' Oil Pastel in Sketchbook

Thanks Rebecca, for your input!
Any one else want to share their best advice for making relationships last?
I've got my sketchbook open and waiting....

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend and remember to sign up for updates by email or RSS. Thanks for visiting.

Photo credit: nyoin / Foter.com 

Read More

Love Takes Time

My memories of family reunions, are filled with smells of corn bread, fried chicken and apple cobbler....and belly aches from eating way too much. But my favorite part of all was settling under the gigantic poarch table, hiding out with one last stolen cookie, while listening to all the STORIES! These get togethers were usually in the heat of dripping hot Augusts in Camden S.C. The air was so humid, you could've bathed in it!  

But, despite the heat,I loved hearing stories from Aunts and Uncles. I must have been what they call "an old soul" because I could strangely absorb and comprehend the between-the-line morals to all their tall tales and adventure tellings. I took special note of several couples in particular in how they spoke tenderly to one another, differing to one another, smiling at all the appropriate junctures. I noticed the little things they did for one another. It made an impression.

In posting a few thoughts on marriage (Best Marriage Advice Ever) I invited others to share their impressions on relational success. Eric, who blogs at CreativeVulcan.blogspot, and a friend of our family, shared this sage advice:

"One of the best pieces of advice I've received is "pace yourself". In work, in life, and even in marriage, there can be an immense pressure to try to fix everything at once, or just to be "all fixed" today. "Rome wasn't built in a day" is the common expression, but it's true. Strong marriages don't happen overnight. They have to be built in time. "

Keeing my promise to interpret the advice via a sketch, I've responded with this!

So, do YOU have a slice of wisdom on what makes for a great marriage that you'd like to share? I'll do a sketch for you too, if you post it! 




If you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend and remember to sign up for updates by email or RSS. Thanks for visiting.

Read More

The King and Queen of Hearts

It's really the little things that make (or break) a great relationship. Funny how that is, right? Our actions are like tiny little pebbles. If the actions are kind and other-centered, the pebbles seem to cluster together to ground the relationship. If our actions are self centered or unforgiving, the pebbles wiggle into our shoes so that we cannot seem to walk in love for a single step! 

In Best Marriage Advice Ever, I mentioned a great little book The 5 Love Languages  which is like a linguistics course in learning to 'speak' love to your spouse : simple ways to learn to do 'little things'.

I also shared my own small but potent piece of marriage advice.  

At the end of that post I invited comments. I wanted to hear others' wise little bits! Offering a sketched interpretation of their best marriage advice, seemed to be enough incentive;I've gotten several. 

Here's Jason's great advice. 

I'd say one of the fundamental things in our marriage has been that we always trust the other has our best in mind. This thought has saved us from many emotional train wrecks. When we choose to believe the best about someone, we don't get cynical or bitter towards them, we grow closer to them despite their shortcomings.

 His blog, Command-and-promise, is deep and well thought.

I interpreted Jason's sage insight as a king and queen counseling over their kingdom with the same goals in mind and same hopes in their heart.

Stay tuned. I'll post the next visual advice 'translation' one soon!

Thanks for stopping by!

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend and remember to sign up for updates by email or RSS. Thanks for visiting.

Read More

Showing the Love

February is the month love is celebrated in a frenzied flurry of pink and red mylar glitz. I confess that when I walk down these aisles and see guys perusing boxes of chocolates to buy, I role play grilling them on what they know about this elusive topic. Don't worry. I practice restraint and have yet to act on this crazy impulse!

Married (happily) for 31 years, I feel I have some perspective on the subject. All I can say is it's a heck of a lot more than the promises of the Victoria's Secret commercials. It's really the gritty, sticky stuff of kindness, patience, compassion, mercy and forgiveness that makes love real.

Recently my hubby and I led a marriage enrichment seminar at our church, based on Gary Chapman's popular book, The 5 Love Languages. Chapman categorizes the basic ways in which we 'speak love' : quality time, words of affirmation, gifts, acts of service, or physical touch. We enjoyed discussing the value of identifying, understanding, and speaking the primary 'love language' of your spouse. 

I HIGHLY recommend the book, The Five Love Languages!  There is no question why it's a consistent New York Times bestseller - with over 5 million copies sold and translated into 38 languages! Amazing! 

I may not have a best seller book(yet) but I say, real love 'lifts up' the other person. This little drawing is my take on the subject. Prints are available here: You Can Do It, is available in paper, canvas, framed or unframed!

You Can Do It by Eleatta

 Thanks for stopping by! 


If you enjoyed this post, please share it with a friend and remember to sign up for updates by email or RSS. Thanks for visiting.

Read More