February 14th is a day set aside to tell the one we love the most how much we love them. And retailers have made it an incredibly profitable day with this year’s gross Valentine’s sales for jewelry, flowers, clothing, candy, restaurants, cards and movies expected to be close to $19 billion dollars.
Get More Bang For Your Buck By Stretching Valentines Out All Year
After you have spent the dough on something perishable for Valentines Day, we hope you will consider stretching Valentines out throughout the whole year in a much less expensive way. Here are some things you can do to rekindle the old flames or keep love alive.
Year Long Valentine Formula
15 Seconds a Day
5 Minutes a Day
15 Minutes 5 Days a Week
1 Hour Every Week
1.5 Hours Every Other Week
- Kiss 15 seconds or more every day. Kissing is intimate and romantic. Kissing will help an old flame heat up again. Kissing releases chemicals that make you feel better. So kiss even when you don’t feel like it and you will begin to have better feelings. Kissing means, “I love you. I want to be with you. You are special to me.” Go for it!
- Pray 5 Minutes a Day. According to one study, less than 1 percent of couples who pray together ever divorce. Making prayer a part of your experience together is powerful. You can pray together as a part of a morning ritual, prior to any meal you eat together, a scheduled time, or just before you go to bed at night. Praying for your spouse and thanking God for your spouse is powerful for your marriage. He is the author and creator of marriage so having Him in the middle of your marriage is a great way to have a blessed marriage!
- Talk 15 minutes or more every day. Talking to each other about subjects other than home management, budget, parenting, transportation, budget, etc. creates intimacy. When each of you take a few minutes to check in with each other about how your day went, it provides opportunities for the two of you to become connected at the heart. As you create “We-ness”, that feeling of the both of you against the world, you become more emotionally connected leading to stronger passion.
- Make love 1 hour a week. It doesn’t have to be all at the same time. Some couples may like a mixture of brief interludes and common style love making, while others prefer more of a gourmet or adventure experience. Whatever way you two prefer, make it a priority enough to schedule if your other priorities seem to be pushing it out of your routine. Make time to even if you don’t feel that loving feeling. As you do, all of these items on the list, the loving feeling will return again.
- Date 1.5 hours every other week. It does not have to be an expensive date and it should not be the same date every time. Look around for activities that you neither have tried before and go try them together. Pick up some second hand tennis rackets, try out a dance class, go people watching at the mall, try making a craft or baking together. The main thing is that you need to do something together frequently. As we have mentioned before, we each take turns scheduling and coordinating the date and have a commitment to do that at least one time monthly.
If you put this Year Long Valentine Formula to work in your marriage, you will find that the love you have deepens and becomes richer and hotter. By doing this, you will be taking charge of creating a lifelong marriage.
What do you have to say?
We love to hear from readers. What are the things you do to keep love alive in your marriage? Are you and your spouse currently practicing any of these activities? If you try any or all of these activities, we’d love to hear how it works out for you.
This article was written by Roy and Devra Wooten, authors of “The Secret to a Lifetime Love”. Learn more at www.LifeTogetherForever.com © Roy and Devra Wooten 2016. All Rights Reserved. You may replicate this article as long as it is provided free to recipients and includes appropriate attribution. Written permission for other use may be obtained at [email protected].