Activities for God is Love

Family Night

Discovering Your God-Given Love Language!

Prepare a dessert ahead of time. It's fun if you choose a "heart" theme! For example: heart candies, heart shaped cake, cookies, or brownies, etc.

You will need:

Question cards (Download and Print them from this PDF or write the questions out yourself on 3x5 cards)
Blank card or pieces of paper
Pencils or pens
Paper to keep score

ALSO... at the end of the Love Language Game, each person will select the heart that has their love language on it and write their name in the space provided. You can have them printed ahead of time. Click here for Hearts template.

The purpose of this Family Night Activity is to determine your God-given Love Language. Parents should read the questions below in preparation for the Family Night, but don't let your kids know what the love languages are until after you play the game! The Love Language Game will help each of you determine your unique Love Language as well as find out what everyone else's Love Language is!

Introduce the game...

Not everyone feels love the same way. For example, one little girl may feel loved most when her dad tells her he loves her, while another girl might love it more when he hugs her. Their brother, however, may like it best when his dad makes time to play with him. They each have a different Love Language. Tonight we're going to play a game that will help us discover what everyone's love language is!

NOTE: Play the game and then tell them about the Love Languages!

How to play:

The youngest person starts by drawing a question card.
Read the card aloud or have someone read it for you.
The person who drew the card is to write down his/her answer to the question--either A. or B. (may ask for help). The person may like both answers but he/she must choose the one they like best.
Everyone else is to write down how they think the person will answer the question.
When everyone is done the person to the right of the starter reads his/her answer and tells why they chose it.
Go around the circle until everyone has shared. Then the starter shares his/her answer and why he/she chose it.
Continue around the circle until all the questions have been asked. If you like, you can go around the circle with each question and let everyone answer the question for themselves and each other before moving to the next question.

Scoring:

Everyone who guessed correctly receives 1 point.
Everyone who did not answer correctly receives no points.
The starter does not receive points in this round.
The person with the most points at the end gets to have the first piece of dessert!

NOTE:
Some questions are more appropriate for older children and some for younger. If a question doesn't work for the child who drew it, have them draw another one.

Adults: answer the question as best you can even though the situations described are from a child's perspective.

DESSERT:

While you are enjoying dessert, talk about the five love languages.

Explain what a love language is and what each love language looks like. From the answers you heard during the game, have everyone talk about which love language they think they are and which one they think each person in your family or group is. You could even make hearts for each person and have them write their love language on it and post the hearts somewhere in the house as reminders during the week. (Click here for hearts that can be printed and cut out).

What are the Love Languages?

#1. Words of Encouragement or Affirmation

you feel especially loved when someone tells you they appreciate you and are grateful for the things you do, big or small.

#2. Quality Time

you feel especially loved when someone chooses to spend special time with you alone.

#3. Receiving Gifts

you feel especially loved when someone gives you a gift, big or small, to let you know they've thought of you.

#4. Acts of Service

you feel especially loved when someone offers to help you accomplish a task, or does something to serve you.

#5. Physical Touch

you feel especially loved when someone hugs you, wrestles with you, pats you on the back or appropriately touches you.

Questions and Comments for Discussion:

What do you think your primary Love Language is?
Are you surprised by someone's Love Language?
Why is it helpful to know what someone's Love Language is?

We tend to show others we love them through our own love language. This works great if their primary love language is the same as yours. It doesn't work well if they have a different one.

Do you think God has a Love Language? If so, which one is it?

We are going to explore God's Love. Let's see if our answer is the same at the end of the adventure as it is now!

NOTE: Have everyone select the heart with their love language on it and have them write their name in the space provided. You may want to have these printed ahead of time. Post them where everyone can see them as a reminder to look for ways to show love in each person's love language!

Close the evening by asking how understanding each others love language will make a difference in how you interact with each other this week.

Final Note:

We recommend you read Dr. Gary Chapman's Book "The Five Love Languages of Children." The fun activity you did tonight just scratches the surface of possibilities for understanding the Love Languages. The book will give you insight into how to best love your children and yourself and how to help them love others.

Alternate

For other "hands on" activities, see Bonus Activities for God is Love.

"God's love is the only reason we exist. It is the why of creation, whereas His power is the how."
- Bill Bright, Discover God

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