Several years ago at church my pastor’s wife related a story to a married couples group about a strange spat she had with the reverend.

The couple hadn’t been married too long when one day she decided to give him a sexy surprise when he came home.  In order to make the pastor feel romantic his wife asked him to sit in the recliner and began to massage his scalp.

Not knowing what was happening at first and semi-annoyed to have his hair put out of place the pastor said, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m only trying to show you how much I love you, honey.”

“Well, “the pastor said, “I really appreciate it but I hate to have my hair touched.  How bout you massage my feet?”

As you can imagine, that sexy date ended disastrously for the couple but when the anger subsided they read a book together called “The Seven Love Languages” and they discovered that what blares I love you for one spouse does not necessarily say I love you to the other.  One person speaks the love language of reclined scalp massages and the other one of foot massage.

This anecdote continues to deposit wisdom into my life not only as a husband but also as a father of three.

As a dad I’m working hard to learn the love languages of each of my kids.  It’s generally been easy so far because my children are close enough in age (2, 6 and 10) that they still love a lot of the same things (Chuck E. Cheese’s, Toys “R” Us and movies) but I know it will get a lot tougher with age.

My son is growing into a big sports fan while my middle daughter ...