What simple acts of love can you practice?

Here are some ideas:

  • Hug and kiss each other every morning before one of you leaves the house. (Research indicates that marriages that practice this simple discipline are much healthier than those that don’t.) 
  • Make your spouse coffee in the morning before he or she heads off to work.
  • Clean their car
  • Pick her some wildflowers and walk through the door with them
  • Set the table for whoever is doing the cooking
  • Send an intimate personal text message
  • Ask him or her to meet you for a quick lunch break
  • Reach across the table, the front seat of your car or the couch to hold her hand, even if only for a few moments.
  • Go an entire day without saying anything to your spouse except praise…affirmation for who they are, what they mean to you, and so on
  • Go to bed at the same time as him/her for a week. Talk, read or share the quietness together
  • Call, send an email or text message mid-day just to see how the other is doing
  • Open the car door for her; Pull out the chair for her at the dinner table; help her put her coat on
  • Fix his favorite meal without him having to ask
  • If you haven’t yet learned to do this, then by all means now is the time – put the toilet seat down after you’re finished (yes, guys, that’s you!)
  • Brag on your spouse in public
  • Compliment your spouse in front of your children
  • Find creative ways to tell each other “I love you” in code
  • Add a candle to the dinner table as a way of telling your spouse you consider the evening special and romantic, simply because they’re there

Simple acts of love are just that – simple. They don’t take time to prepare or money to maintain. They are mostly impulsive. Perhaps pretty soon, they’ll be habitual.

Cindi McMenamin is a national speaker and the author of several books, including When a Woman Inspires Her Husband, Women on the Edge, and When Couples Walk Together, which she co-authored with her husband, Hugh. For more on her books or ministry, or for free resources to strengthen your soul or marriage, see her website: www.StrengthForTheSoul.com.