Whatever crisis you may be going through just remember, the only thing you’ll ever need are the things that cannot ever be taken away from you.
Faith, Hope & Love
Tag: Love
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I have a friend that thinks Valentine’s Day is a made up Hallmark holiday. He thinks it benefits the florists, jewelers and other such stores. According to him, Valentine’s Day makes people without romantic partners feel lonely. It puts pressure on husbands, boyfriends and lovers to be romantic, buy flowers, give gifts and profess their love.
I agree, it is a made up holiday. It does financially benefit many businesses and I LOVE it! Personally, I think men need a little pressure. They need a shove and a push to pull out all the stops. Before your protest, I will say that there are a few men who know how to make us feel loved. They know how to whisper sweet nothings and bring home flowers periodically but you have to admit that they are a minority.
As for the lonely people, I don’t believe that we are ever lonely if we just focus on all the people who love us. In high school, my best friend and I sent each other flowers, and gave one another a card that spelled out how much we meant to one another. We didn’t need romantic partners to celebrate Valentine’s Day. We celebrated our great friendship, our sisterhood!
I see Valentine’s Day as just another excuse to be my mushy self. I enjoy getting flowers and presents and beautiful cards with meaningful words. I also enjoy giving to my loved ones and expressing my love.
This Valentine my eight year-old daughter and I bought beautiful heart-shaped cookies from whole foods for her little classmates.
Along with all the sugar we wanted to put a little more love in their goody bags, so we did. We decided to create little compliment notes. They have positive sayings such as “You Rock”, “You can do anything”, “You are kind” and then at the bottom we wrote “Pay it forward”. The purpose of the note was to make the children feel good about themselves and inspire them to say kind words to others. We wanted to highlight their wonderful qualities. We wanted them to believe in their goodness. We wanted to show love. That’s what Valentine’s Day is all about. I spent most of Valentine’s day with a lovely friend whose child got a split lip in a fall. She needed me to take her to the hospital.
Aside from having a lovely dinner with my husband and child she was the highlight of my day. Spending time with my family and a friend who needed me was the best way to spend Valentine’s Day.
I love this “made up” Hallmark holiday and how it inspires people to show love…even if it’s not so comfortable for them. I don’t particularly want to focus on its history, although it is interesting. That’s another blog.It’s all in the way you look at things. I’m feeling pretty happy and thankful for my Valentine’s day. I have so much love around me! I hope you do too!
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I can recall being a little girl and dreaming of my Prince Charming. I could never make out his face. It was always rather fuzzy. I knew he would be tall, strong and that he would really love me. Fast forward to the present day and I have exactly what I dreamt of, well kind of. My husband is tall, strong and he really loves me. That being said, he is not perfect, certainly no Prince Charming. He is kind, he is good and he would do anything for his family.
As a child, I was exposed to Disney movies. Classic fairy tales such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. No doubt if you are a female you remember having a favorite princess, or if you have a little girl like I do, you definitely know who her favorite princess is. My little one loves Ariel from the Little Mermaid. Little girls have been dreaming in Disney for generations now.
Let’s really consider what Disney is teaching our little girls. Most of these animations have some sort of Prince Charming for the lead female character: Aladdin for Jasmine, “The Prince” in Snow White, “Prince Charming” in Cinderella, “Prince Phillip” in Sleeping Beauty, “The Beast” in Beauty and the Beast who turns into a Prince. If your familiar with the stories all the characters are in some sort of trouble and at the end they are rescued by their prince and they live happily ever after. Or do they?
In reality we marry “the one” and things get REAL very fast! We realize we come from completely different families, we have things in common but there are also lots of things we don’t have in common. Having to merge families can be difficult. I think of how I want my family treated and that’s how I treat his family. It takes a while but if you are lucky and have in laws who love you like I do, they eventually become your family as well. Finances are always a big factor in many couples’ lives. It’s the thing we fight the most about! Sometimes we handle arguments differently. Some of us like to yell while others prefer to deal with things calmly. The first year of marriage is the most difficult year. That’s when you kind of wake up and freak out! Then you feel a bit settled until you add a child into the mix and that rocks your relationship once again! Years go by, the newness and romance fades and we settle into a comfortable lull…that can get b o r I n g! You question your love over and over again. Here is the thing, if you really love each other you make it work. You have to communicate what it is that you want from each other. You have to make the time to go on dates with your spouse and bring back the fun. Life is difficult and it’s nice to have a partner to share the ups and downs of life.
My love is a sweet, kind amazing human being. He is also a wonderful father. In the eleven years that we have been married he has never raised his voice to me. He has never called me names. He has supported me, loved me, and loved my family as if they are his own. I feel the same about my in laws. It’s a blessing to have more family to love and be loved by. My husband continues to try to give me the things that matter to me. He continues to strive to be my Prince Charming. I am an independent woman who is strong, intelligent, loud and opinionated. I am not so easy to live with. It takes a real confidant man to be my partner! He has to put his ego aside in order to be my husband. I feel blessed to have a kind, loving husband. I don’t believe in anyone saving me. I don’t believe in happy endings. Life is what you make of it. It should be two complete people joining forces to form a family. Each one of us have to have our own interests, goals and aspirations. Each one of us have to push, respect, support and cheer for the other. That’s what I’ll teach my daughter.
So I’ll save him and he’ll save me.
Happy anniversary to the most amazing husband ever! I love you! -
The heart is the most delicate part of our anatomy and yet it has the most awesome power. It pumps blood throughout our entire body and nourishes our muscles. It endures a lot and yet it’s so delicate that once it is pierced it can easily be destroyed. When we are in love we feel with our hearts. Poets and songwriters have written about the heart. There is an entire day dedicated to the heart. I call my husband my sweetheart because the love I have for him comes from my heart. It is from the heart where sweetness of every sweet thing is derived.
As a mother I feel my heart soar out of my body when I look at my child. My love for her is the reflection of the pure heart. I put my everything in raising her to be someone who cherishes the love she has been given. She has learned to handle the hearts of her loved ones with compassion, patience and kindness. I hope that the people she loves do the same for her. Our hearts are soft, fragile and enduring. I try to keep that in mind when I handle those I love and when I speak to people that pass through my life.
I would never want to be the one that breaks the heart of someone I love. The next time you speak to your loved ones make sure you shield their heart, because a broken heart is hard to mend, if ever.
