You Can Be Romantic

Why is it that so many people believe that they don’t have time or take the initiative to be romantic? Maybe most people don’t believe that they are creative enough to be romantic. Everyone is creative!

The word create offers a much broader definition than most people accept when it comes to the process of being able to come up with something original or simply well thought out.

Gifts that are considered to be traditionally romantic like candy and flowers are wonderful, but sometimes you need something that goes one step further. If your spouse enjoys flowers, you don’t have to settle for roses because they can sometimes become unexciting after a while.

Present them with something completely original such as a daisy or another flower where petals can be counted. Ask them to play the childhood game of ‘they love me, they love me not’ and watch them pluck the petals as they go.

However, don’t allow for the possibility of him or her arriving at the ‘they love me not’. Count the petals before you present the flower to your spouse and trim it so that there is an odd number of petals for the right outcome.

Arts and crafts used to be a fun break from the monotony of the school day, but believe it or not, it will come in handy when it comes to creative romantic gestures. Instead of promising that you will love him or her forever, show them.

Creativity comes in many different forms. Being creative can mean creating an atmosphere. If you want to plan the ultimate romantic evening but funds are low or you simply don’t want to have to leave the house.

Shut off the lights and imitate a power outage. You won’t have any distractions or heat, so it is up to both of you to keep the other warm and entertain each other.

Maybe romance is on your mind, but they are going out of town. Did you know that people on airplanes are typically hopeless romantics? Any flight attendant would be more than happy to make sure that your spouse receives a special present after the flight has left the ground.

Simply approach a crew member after your spouse boards the plane and they are usually more than happy to oblige a hopeless romantic like you. You might want to make sure that the gift is unwrapped or keep it to a single rose due to heightened security.

Creativity doesn’t have to come in the form of gifts every single time. Gestures like getting up and dancing with your spouse when a special song comes on the radio or TV is quite creative and incredibly romantic. Whenever the mood strikes you, allow your creative juices to flow!

What Is True Love?

The true source of fulfilling and satisfying loving relationships is not from seeking love, but is found within ourselves. Our own thoughts, expectations and behaviors determine the quality of true love we experience in our lives.

We can recognize true love as it is always empowering. True love gives, without expectations or demands in return. True love comes from a place within ourselves and expresses concern, kindness and joyfulness.

We know if we are experiencing true love by how we feel and act. Feeling needy, yearning to control or manipulate, planning or scheming to punish someone because they have disappointed us are not traits of true love.

Constantly finding flaws instead of acceptance, being possessive or jealous, and experiencing fright or sadness are all weaknesses that fill us with fear, anger and resentment. We can recognize that these feelings are not caused by true love.

These feelings are all generated by seeking to receive love from someone else. But we cannot get true love by demanding it or trying to force someone to love us. Love is never found with demands or ultimatums.

It is impossible to have true love by seeking it from someone else. These feelings make powerless victims out of us so we think our happiness is wholly dependent upon someone else behaving in a certain way. Only a relationship with God will give us true happiness.

If we find ourselves in this situation, the good news is, we don't have to remain in this vulnerable state that controls and weakens us. True love is within ourselves, and as we recognize this true love from God, we are able to discover enormous joy, comfort, kindness and happiness.

As we discover this power of true love, we will stop seeking love from outside of ourselves. We will know that our source of happiness is not dependent on the behaviors of someone else, but how our love is managed within ourselves, through God's love for us.

We, with our faith in God, are the only ones that create our own happiness. Our own happiness and contentment will cause us to serve another unselfishly, thereby receiving true love we want in return.

God's Purpose Of Marriage

It is discouraging to see so many marriages that are in turmoil these days, and it is especially frustrating to see them end up as messy divorces.

Without knowing the purpose of marriage, we will likely misuse or abuse it. Anytime anything is used wrongly or contrary to its intended use, we have frustrated the purpose for which it was intended and therefore misused it.

Before we discuss what the purpose of marriage is, lets talk about a couple reasons NOT to get married. You should not get married "To Be Happy". People, places and things cannot make you happy. Only a relationship with God will do that.

Another reason NOT to get married is to "Escape Problems". If you get married to escape problems, you are just creating more problems. As an example, a young girl says she wants to get married to get out from under her parents authority, especially her dad's. If she will rebel against her dad's authority, what makes you think she won't rebel against yours?

Now, why did God create and ordain marriage between one man and one woman? Lets discuss 5 biblical purposes God created marriage.

1. To Avoid Fornication. (I Corinthians 7:2) "Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband." Marriage is the arena by which God ordains that we express our sexuality.

2. Procreation And Rearing Functional Children. Morality must start at home. It is in our homes our children should be learning about the values of life. Parents should be teaching them about authority, about accountability, how to become functional members of the church and society.

3. To Serve And Love Another. Another purpose of marriage is for you to serve another. (I Corinthians 7:32-34) says that a single man or woman cares for the things of the Lord so that they may please the Lord, but the man and woman that is married, must care for the things of the world to please their mate.

4. For Two To Become One. Female, according to (Genesis 2), came out of male. Eve came out of Adam. And God brought them back together and made them one, in marriage; male and female.

5. Husbands And Wives Are As Christ And The Church. The home is a reflection of Christ and the Church. That's why it is supposed to have a male and female, a husband and wife. We are the bride of Jesus and he is our husband. The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church.

Learning and understanding God's purpose of marriage will have a profound affect on your marriage. Stronger marriages lead to stronger families whereby producing functional, God fearing children who will pass on their Godly values to their children.