Last week many of us celebrated Valentine’s Day. Whether married or single many people are affected by the day, some with eagerness, and others with sadness or dread. In the minds of many, Valentine’s Day is the day of love. This year I spent hours trying to figure how I would celebrate the day. This being my first Valentine’s Day with my new partner, I wanted it to be fun and special. With a little planning, it turned out to be a wonderful experience. Although the day has ended, it is still important to keep love alive, love for our partner as well as ourselves.
In this article I wanted to provide some spiritual tools to cultivate more love in your life. Not just love for a mate, but love for yourself. Lately, I have been exploring the concept of self-love. Jesus told us to “love our neighbor” AS “we love ourselves.” Many Christians believe that self-love is narcissistic or selfish, however the Bible suggests that a healthy self-love is needed to truly love others.
In my program, Detox Your Life and Awaken Your Inner Spirit, I encourage Christians to love themselves first and to become their own best friend. When we love ourselves, we don’t need others to validate or make us feel good about who we are. Instead, we value the person that God made us to be and by doing so we set the standard for others to value us as well. Our value doesn’t come from how we look, what we do, or what position we hold. It comes from knowing that we are made in the image of God and that God created us with a distinct plan and purpose in mind. What is that purpose? I believe it is to be a reflection of God’s love! And whether you are a homemaker, a chef, or an executive, you can let God’s love and light shine through you to touch others, starting right now.
But don’t we need continual reminders to love ourselves as well as others? I know that I do. When we’re not feeling at our best emotionally or physically, it’s so easy to get caught up in the “woe is me” mentally or even the blame game. Then before I know it, our mind can take a quick dive into a circular flow of negativity and the internal drama begins, with ourselves or our partners bearing the brunt of our mental attack.
So what can we do about it? Here are several tools you can create or use to help you affirm the love you want to cultivate with yourself, your partner, or even a future relationship that you’re believing God for.
Create Your Very Own Love Intention. I got this idea from the book “Sealing the Deal,” by Dr. Diana Kirschner. She also wrote the book “Love in 90 Days.” We all know that God tells us to “speak those things that be not as though they already were.” In other words, live by faith and to use your words to create something from nothing.” But unfortunately, most people use this valuable principle to unconsciously manifest what they don’t want by focusing on the negative or what they don’t have. Kirschner sited a study in her book that indicated when one partner felt pessimistic about their relationship, they saw even the positive actions of their mate as “negative” because they didn’t believe their mate had good intentions. A Love Intention is a great way to combat any negative self talk about yourself or your partner. You can visualize your Love Intention as a large ink stamp that you use to cancel out those negative messages that undermine you or your relationship. Your love intention should be one sentence or statement that embraces what you really want.
For example, my Love Intention is…
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“I am happily married to a wonderful man who loves, appreciates, supports, and cherishes me.” |
This is a good Love Intention whether you are married or want to be married in the future. Whatever you want in your relationship or love life, create a powerful Love Intention to help you materialize what you truly desire. Spend time developing the perfect love intention for you. Maybe you have a great relationship but want to use your Love Intention to alter one aspect of your relationship that bugs you. If you’re not married, and want to be, write a love intention that will help you manifest a great partner, “I am attracting the perfect love relationship for me.” Whenever your mind tells you something different, repeat your love intention to keep you focused, filled with faith, and positive.
Daily Affirmations for Couples and Singles – One of the things I created as a Valentine’s Gift for my beloved was a calendar of daily love affirmations. The calendar included 4-weeks of daily affirmations for my mate to read everyday to remind him of how much he loved and appreciated me. :-) I gave him the instructions to select one affirmation a day and repeat it mentally or verbally at least 20 times. To help him remember, I suggested that he create an external reminder. For example, anytime he looked at his watch or ring it would remind him to repeat the affirmation for that day. One day he just sat there and said it aloud 20 times in a row. LOL
I loved the idea so much I created a set of daily love affirmations for singles as well and gave them to friends at one of the weekly women’s church fellowships I attend. They loved them! You can find the links below to download and print for yourself. Some affirmations for couples include “I easily open my heart to my partner,” or “I listen to my partner with love and patience.” For singles some affirmations include “I never settle for less than my heart and soul desire,” or “I live in the present moment. The best time of my life is Now!” Use the links below to open and print out A Month of Daily Love Affirmations for Couples and A Month of Daily Love Affirmations for Singles.
Other tools that can improve your love life include my Successful Christian Marriage Affirmation CD and the Guided Christian Meditation CD: Love and Relationships for Singles. Just click on the links to learn more.
Need a Christian Makeover or desire more ideas to improve your life and relationships? Check out my Detox Your Life and Awaken Your Inner Spirit Program. This 10-week program will help you to detox seven core areas in your life. These include your mind, spirit, body, home, vision, space, and yes, relationships! With the purchase of the Detox Your Life CD, you can download the Ebook for free! Paperback book is also available.
Below is a recent testimony for the Detox Your Life Program:
“AMEN AND AMEN! I AM CURRENTLY WORKING THROUGH YOUR FREE “DETOX YOUR LIFE NOW” AND I AM SO BLESSED AND CHALLENGED > THANK YOU FOR A BRILLIANT BOOK! THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR EXPERIENCES WITH US!! GOD BLESSES YOU ABUNDANTLY!!”- GLENDA STEELE
Have a testimonial? Please let us know!
