Am I filling my partners cup?

So often we all forget or neglect the value and importance of filling our partner’s cup.  Our cups are the  mental, emotional, physical, and especially spiritual parts of our beings.   When we minister to our  partners, they experience God’s love and care.  When our cups are filled several things happen.  We experience the love of God in this world. We feel protection from the worries and cares of life.  All of my other troubles seem smaller, less threatening.

It’s not that hard to figure out if your filling your partner’s cup.   Take a few moments and look into your partner’s eyes,  what do you see looking back?   Hurt, pain, loneliness, fear, or security, significance, trust , or hope?    It’s taking time to listen, care and serve, every day just a little bit.   Most cups don’t run dry over night, but over the course of a week, month, or year, a vast desert can grow.  Have your ever seen how a desert comes to life when it rains?   As soon as the water stops, it becomes  barren again.

How do we fill our spouse’s needs or fill them with what is truly meaningful to their individual needs and interests?  We do this through knowing and responding to our partner’s love language.   Gary Smalley  lists  ways to determine a person’s individual needs through love languages on his web site, The Five Love Languages.

First I ask myself, is my partners cup not full?  Second, we minster care in a way that has meaning to the other person.   I try to fill my partners cup by serving her tea every morning, she tells me with a smile this is really meaningful.. (that was easy!)