The same author, Gary Chapman, brought out the apology language. If you like me, thought it would just be “I’m sorry”, then look again. There’s more to it, there’s a number of different ways you can say sorry.
You can express regret so an “I am sorry” is needed. Some people need to hear that responsibility has been accepted, so admitting fault. Others need to have restitution (some sort of compensation) made, so let’s say the person’s love language gifts, some sort of gift to make up for it. Others need to feel the other is genuinely repenting, so will come up with an action plan so that whatever wrong does not happen again. And finally, there are people that request forgiveness for their actions.
This was most obvious with a good friend of mine. She would say to her husband, “I told you I’m sorry. What more do you want?” He would say, “But what have you learned?” They clearly had differing apology languages, so once they understood this, they were able to apologise in such a way that both felt satisfied.
Like with the love languages, you can be a combination of all of the above to varying degrees.
Which one are you? Find out and know how best to say I’m sorry (1)
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