View Article

Marriage > Communication

Word Pictures -- Part One: Five Reasons Why Word Pictures Work
By: Family First Staff
Printer Friendly Version

Move beyond "everyday words" and use word pictures in your communication with your spouse. In their book, The Language of Love, Dr. Gary Smalley and Dr. John Trent describe a communication style to convey better insight and understanding to your spouse.

This method is called "emotional word pictures" and is defined as "a communication tool that uses a story or object to activate simultaneously the emotions and intellect of a person. In so doing, it causes the person to experience our words, not just hear them."

Why Word Pictures Work

1. Word Pictures Have Been Time-Tested by the World's Greatest Communicators. Smalley and Trent give examples of great speakers, such as Cicero, Benjamin Franklin and Winston Churchill, who have used word pictures in their communications with others. This is a time-tested method.

2. Word Pictures Grab and Direct Attention. Studies have shown that word pictures encourage the brain to work faster and expend more energy than when we listen to regular words. Word pictures force your spouse to get past the words and focus on the meaning behind the story.

3. Word Pictures Bring Communication to Life. Word pictures "activate a person's emotions, which can lead to positive change." 

4. Word Pictures Lock Thoughts into Our Memory. Studies have shown that people remember things better when a word picture is used. 

5. Word Pictures Provide a Gateway to Intimacy. Using word pictures provides a common ground of communication that both spouses can use. 

Getting Started. So how do you create an effective word picture? Read the second part of this article: Word Pictures -- Part Two: How to Create a Word Picture.

 This article is based on the book, The Language of Love, by Dr. Gary Smalley and Dr. John Trent.