Ok, so by now almost everyone has heard of the book The Five Love Languages after being originally published three decades ago in 1992, and although the book identifies only five possible languages, my husband swears he found one more that author Gary Chapman undoubtedly missed: The Love Language of Respect. While my hubby desires to be affirmed verbally, is grateful when I serve him, loves to be touched by me, longs for us to spend quality time together, and appreciates thoughtful gifts, I dare say he may actually trade all of those in to be well respected and esteemed daily, and that is how he receives and feels love.
This year, for father’s day, I decided that I would get my husband a gift that tailored more to the love language he admittedly speaks, so I sat down to list a few ideas that would show how much our kids and I respect him. Now, I pride myself on creativity when it comes to gift-giving and celebrations, but this time I grabbed my pen and paper and stared at it for several minutes with absolutely zero ideas in mind. None. Not one! So, I did what any other creative person would do when stumped for ideas, I grabbed my phone and attempted to search for inspiration on the Pinterest app. No help whatsoever. I then reverted to googling “gifts that show respect to a man” on my computer, and all that was offered were tangible trinkets such as bracelets, blankets, and typical other presents with an engraved phrase that says “Dad, I respect you” or “I respect you as a father.” Not quite the creative concepts that I was searching for exactly.
I realized that obtaining a gift that displays my respect for my husband and the father of my children is not something that I can give only on one commercialized day out of the year and think that it will be effective. The respect that he needs is only effective if it is consistent and unconditional. While I may be able to emphasize that respect and love for him on father’s day or on his birthday when we celebrate him, I cannot limit or isolate it to only those days. With this in mind, I wrote out a list of how our family intended to honor and respect my husband and their dad throughout the year and then crafted a creative way to present that list to him.
