What is one of the greatest lessons that my mother taught me?
Watch this video to find out, plus, discover “the sixth love language” and how it can create a greater connection at work and at home.
One Lesson My Mom Taught Me
So I’m thinking about this and I’m thinking about what did I learn when I was a kid? What did I learn when I was a teenager, after I got married, or what have I learned recently?
And I have to tell you that the common thread that starts to go and connect all these dots with my mom is……
One word
Food!
So there are lots of lessons in my early experiences of food. A little-known fact about me is that at one point in my life, as a kid, I wanted to be a chef.
And so obviously I was very inspired by the food and by what my mom was doing in preparing food.
So that’s all the way back in childhood. But now I see my mom in a different light with food.
Why There is a 6th Love Language
You see, my mom has taught me and, and we teach in our family that there are five love languages, according to Dr. Gary Chapman.
But my mom thinks that there are six and the sixth love language is food. I love that because I’m learning more and more, the older I get that food can be a powerful expression of emotion and even love to those that we care about.
So, I see it now play out in my own life where on Tuesdays, we tend to spend a lot of time together as a team in the workplace.
We’ve started ordering out and I started, you know, bringing in food, having a team lunch.
Learn more about Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages.
How Food Can Build Relationship at Home and at Work
And it’s so interesting how over that food, how much we can build on the relationships and the affection that we have for each other, even in the workplace.
And then it wasn’t that long ago when my wife and I started watching the food network. We don’t watch much TV at all, but we watch one channel and that’s the food network.
There happened to be one that was, she was watching it and I just started, you know, developing an appreciation for it.
One of the shows that I really liked and was called “Beat Bobby Flay”. And at the time of recording this video, I still like watching beat Bobby Flay.
I started taking some notes down when I would see an item or a meal that somebody prepped and thought we could do this.
How Food Turned to Something Fun for the Entire Family
And as just an expression of love for our kids, we started doing these evenings where we would take what we learned on beat Bobby Flay. And we would try to prepare those, those items.
Then the kids would be the judge. They would judge and see how well did mom and dad do with these items.
Oftentimes, you know, I was like really picking something that was a stretch, you know, out there.
So it was totally experimental, not something they had ever eaten or that we had ever prepared. And so, it became just a great fun experience for our kids, for our family, even for our relationship.
It’s something that they’ve been reminding us lately that we haven’t done in a little while.
We’re in a new timeframe where some of our kids are going to come back from college. I think we’re going to kick that back up and start that again.
I’m starting to develop an appreciation. It’s awesome.
So, thank you, mom. My mom’s name is Ruth. Thank you, Ruth, for teaching me about food and how much it can convey love to those we care for (and more).