Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Love Doctor

It is almost Valentines Day. I wanted to encourage you to do something inexpensive and meaningful for someone that you care about. Instead of waiting to see if anyone does anything for you; I challenge you to be creative and do something for someone else that you love.

Here are a couple of inexpensive ideas that I have done in the past & I would LOVE to hear some of yours~

"The Love Doctor"

Take an empty medicine bottle (washed out & label removed.) Make up a fun label that says something like:

"For Emotional Health, please take one tablet daily or as needed for encouragement."

Put your own name as the prescribing doctor. You can make it as "official" looking as you choose - including your "prescription refill" number & phone number, etc.

Inside you will put one line (typed and cut out) reasons that you love the person, what makes them unique or special, funny things that you love about them or things they say often, etc. Then simply roll up the slip of paper tightly and put a small amount of tape on to seal the edge. (making it look like a pill.) Make sure to compliment more than their physical or exterior strengths.

Some examples to get you started:

For a Spouse - "You do a wonderful job providing for our family even during difficult financial times." "I love the way that you encourage the kids if they have had a bad day." "It secretly makes me smile every time you wear those ripped jeans that I always tell you to throw out." "I love it when you share a Scripture Verse that has stood out to you."

For a Child - "I love your hugs!" "You are such an amazing big brother!" "I'm so proud of how you play Basketball." "It makes my heart smile when you pray for your friends." "You rock at math!"

You can use colored paper or use colored ink if you choose. Try to think of 20-30 things so they have a full month's supply. It is easy to do this for a parent, grandparent, friend, etc. You can also just write out encouraging Scripture verses as well.

"Coupon Books"

This is a very well known idea; but I challenge you to put in a few things that might take a little more effort on your part.

Basic ideas - "Redeem this coupon for _______ " (favorite meal, back rub, down time, chores you will do in their place, etc)

More Challenging ideas - These will take more effort on your part and you may want to include a little "fine print" to help these be more successful.

"Redeem this coupon to 'get out of the dog house for free'" *To redeem this coupon; you may simply bring the coupon to me and say, "I'm sorry." You must then give me 15 minutes of alone time.

-During that 15 minutes of alone time, you breathe deep and choose to let go of the offense. Feel free to shoot me an e-mail (or a close friend) to give you a couple of Scriptures or to be praying for you!!! In order for this one to be effective; you will need to let go of the offense - surrender it to the Lord and not pick it back up. **You may only want to put one of these into your booklet if you know it will be a challenge for you** Keep in mind that if they are willing to come to say "I'm sorry" and bring you the coupon that they are not wanting to be at odds with you and are reaching out to be at peace!

"Redeem this coupon for a three hour block of uninterrupted sports watching (gaming, etc)!" *To redeem this coupon; it must be presented to me 24 hours in advance of the sporting event you wish to watch and must not conflict with a previously scheduled event.*

-You will have 24 hrs notice here so plan accordingly. If there are children at the house; either take them out or plan activities to keep them busy during the sports time. You can really bless them by going out of your way to provide their favorite snacks as well. *If this is done effectively; you can begin to open communication lines between you & your spouse by helping them to understand that with a little notice and consideration there can be much more peace.

I'd love to hear some of your inexpensive Valentine ideas!!! (Especially because I've already used the above mentioned ones!)

In Christ's Love,

Shanda



11 comments:

momma said...

what a great idea!!

stopping by from sits

Kathryn said...

Shanda, I wish I had another creative idea for you! If I come up with one, I'll let you know! :-)

Honey Mommy said...

One creative idea I heard was to get a little notebook and write the person you love a heartfelt letter. Then from time to time you stealthily write new notes in the notebook for them to check. It's like a greeting card that you keep.

Honey Mommy said...

An oldie but goodie is to give someone a "heart attack". You cover the room with paper hearts. I did it for my husband once and he was finding hearts in his books, shirt pockets, etc. for weeks. It was fun. You could even write cute notes on the hearts.

Anonymous said...

Cute ideas!

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Zen Cupcake Blog

Gretchen said...

Lovely ideas, Shanda. For the kids, I usually do pink and red food, but husbands are harder to think of...I think...for us, just cuddling and taking that one minute to look into each others' eyes and say, "I'm so glad I got you babe" is really all that is needed.

His Girl said...

thanks for your comment on my blog.... how fun it is to explore yours! Hitting 'subscribe' so I can read more!

Kate said...

Loved these ideas! I am so bad about encouraging my family members. I'm working on it and am doing better though.
Oh, and we have the same duck in the previous post! The monkey used to sit it in forever in the tub.

joanofalltrades said...

Great ideas! My husband had dinner catered and ready for me when I got home from work 3yrs ago on VDay. As I was eating my meal he got down on one knee and proposed. This was after a very long speech, but I still never saw it coming. This Valentine's Day we kept it very simple. We stayed in, had dinner, and watched the All Star festivities. I gave the Love Dare and Fireproof to both of us for VDAY. Thanks for continuing to be a spiritual inspiration.

Shanda said...

love ya mom your blog is great!!!!!

Jaden Paige said...

What great ideas!! I absolutely love the "love doctor" idea.. what a unique way to make the people you love feel special and show them how much you appreciate them!!

Thank you for stopping by my poetry blog yesterday! I appreciate your kind words :)