Love as a Way of Life: The Seven Secrets Behind Every Language of Love » (Unabridged)

Dr. Gary Chapman is the author of twenty-five books, including the New York Times bestseller The Five Love Languages, with more than 4 million copies in print. A popular speaker and an internationally respected marriage and family life expert, he hosts the daily radio program A Love Language Minute. Dr. Chapman is director of Marriage & Family Life Consultants, Inc. He and his wife, Karolyn, have two adult children and two grandchildren and live in North Carolina.

Each day involves countless interactions with others–not only among family and friends but also with neighbors, coworkers, even telephone solicitors. An attitude of love may ot be your top priority in some of these encounters. But what if the ancient maxim “love your neighbor as yourself” applied to everyone, including those you meet in the most ordinary circumstances?

By giving love, instead of grabbing for it, you’ll become the person others want to love in return, no matter what their role in your life.

Relationship expert Dr. Gary Chapman applies the seven characteristics of authentic love to family life, friendship, the workplace, and beyond. Eye-opening personal assessments uncover relational strengths and weaknesses, while real-life stories and ideas for building habits of love will inspire you to grow into the complete person you were meant/created to be.

Capture a vision that will transform your relationships and make your corner of the world a better place–by choosing Love As a Way of Life.

Includes questions for personal reflection or group discussion.

Publishers Weekly

Chapman follows up his five million-copy bestseller The Five Love Languages with this wise, heartfelt guide to cultivating seven traits that lead to loving relationships. Whereas his work on love languages explored the primary ways people give and receive love, this book explores the nitty-gritty of an entire "attitude of love," with chapters on kindness, patience, forgiveness, humility, courtesy, generosity and honesty. Each chapter includes quizzes, questions for reflection and ideas for applying that chapter's teachings. All self-help books run the risk of cliché, but Chapman manages to make tried-and-true material feel fresh through carefully chosen examples from his pastoral counseling practice and his own life. The chapter on forgiveness is especially powerful, as Chapman advocates forgiveness as a daily habit, not an occasional bequest. Although Christian faith provides the scaffolding for his program and a concluding chapter makes the need for God's help explicit, Chapman's judicious counsel can be implemented by people of many religious traditions. This book is head and shoulders above the bulk of self-help literature precisely because it is not about "self" so much as helping others. (July 15)

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Acknowledgments     ix
Introduction     xi
Why We Want to Love
The Satisfaction of a Loving Life     3
The Seven Secrets to Love
Kindness: Discovering the Joy of Helping Others     15
Patience: Accepting the Imperfections of Others     40
Forgiveness: Finding Freedom from the Grip of Anger     65
Courtesy: Treating Others as Friends     86
Humility: Stepping Down So Someone Else Can Step Up     111
Generosity: Giving Yourself to Others     133
Honesty: Revealing Who You Really Are     159
Making Love a Way of Life
Making Love a Way of Life in Marriage     187
Making Love a Way of Life in Parenting     200
Making Love a Way of Life in the Workplace     210
The Motivation to Love     220
Epilogue     229
Notes     231
Going Deeper to Make Love a Way of Life     239