The Quest for Authentic Manhood

Okay...I guess I'll try out a suggestion. I am going to buy my wife a single rose for 13 days prior to Valentines Day. I will attach a message to each rose telling her one thing that I love about her. On Valentines Day, I will purchase a very nice silver cross (from Sycamore's!)and a nice card summing up all the previous notes.

Here is valentines gift idea that I am creating for my wife. We recently took a great trip to Italy. I am going to create a hard bound book that will include photos from our trip. If I get really creative, I will also include some romantic text within the book to go along with the pictures. You can use a website like www.mpix.com and simply upload your pictures for an easy process. Be careful not to include any photos that you don't want your friends to see because the book will most likely end up on your coffee table!

Day spas have been a huge success around my house. There are several here in Spring or the ultimate day spa in town is Urban Retreat. A woman feels so much better about herself after a manicure, pedicure, facial and/or getting her make-up applied by a professional or having her hair done.

Purchase a large crystal serving bowl (a punch bowl would be great but you don't need the glasses). Fill it with nice body oils, bath salts, bubble bath, etc. for her gift. When you present it, remove the items and fill the bowl with warm water and have a towel handy (you can even buy a nice one of these as well). Like Jesus did for his disciples, get on your knees and wash your wife's feet, making her clean before God and vowing your love and servitude to her. The bowl will make a great bathroom accessory for her to remember this very special Valentine's day.

Over the last few days we used some airline miles and sent Rosemary out to the "Rethink Conference" held at the Crystal Cathedral. She got to hear speakers like
George H.W. Bush, Robert Schuller,Lee Strobel, Don Nava, Bishop Charles Blake, Kathy Ireland, Charles Colson, Dr. Jim Burns, Mark Kvamme, Dan Kimball, Chris Seay, Dr. Michael Guillen, Dr. Les Parrott, Tim Clinton, Jon Gordon, Lou Holtz, Donna Schuller, John Ortberg, Larry King, Ben Vereen, and two of Ro's favorites Gary Smalley and Kay Warren. Ro said "it doesn't get any better than this and it will last through Valentines and most of her Birthday"!

My wife loves the spring time and the preparations for summer, the sun, and fun. Part of her prep is to get her hair highlighted which can be rather expensive and most of the time she settles for less than perfect just for the sake of saving money. This year, along with a card which expresses my love for her, she will also get a certificate to Visible Changes (her favorite hair salon) to cover the cost of her annual hair makeover and I promise...no griping about the price. She is worth every penny of it and then some.

Last year my "Squadron" (why call it a small group, we're men, who wants to be in something small?...sounds so feminine). Anyway my squad and i were going through John Eldridge's Way of the Wild Heart and happened to be on the "lover" chapter during Valentines Day (no accident). Having all come off of the Wild at Heart Adventure, we took some ideas from John and decided that if we were going to learn to live in/as a community of men it would be good for our wives to get to know one another as well. We decided to host a Valentine's Day Love Our Wives appreciation dinner. We had 2 Masseuses come in and treat our wives individually to 30 minute sessions of relaxation, there was a chocolate fondue fountain with fresh fruit, marshmallows, etc. While the ladies were visiting and relaxing, (no children allowed, we provided child care) the men fixed dinner. We all took note cards (pink of course) and wrote love notes to our wives expressing as best we could how much we appreciated them and how deeply we loved them. When dinner was ready, we sat our wives and served them, we cleaned up the kitchen and tables while they relaxed some more and visited. We finished the night off with wives testimonies (not prompted) about how much they loved and appreciated their husbands and what the "Squad" meant to them...

Our Valentine's Day Family Tradition...

We had an idea about 4 years ago, and have continued, to date our 2 young daughters on Valentine's day. We date each other often, and so we thought we could use this day to let them know how special they are and how they should be treated on a "date". First, during the day, I have always brought a rose to their school, and they always pretend to be surprised to see daddy in the school office.

On Valentine's night, the girls dress up, and mom wears something "visually appealing". My wife decided to make dinner unusual, and more "sensual" by adding music, candlelight, and by only using our hands to eat dinner (this is easy when you have a toddler). So the first time we had shish-kabob and veggies, and since we have branched out to potstickers and spring rolls, but dessert is always the same. Dessert has become the favorite part of our meal. My wife makes a chocolate sauce and pours it into individual martini glasses and we dip fruit, cookies, cake and fingers until we have had our fill!

I read bible verses about love and we tell our girls (& each other) why we love them. We hope to continue to have these special Valentine's dinners; and hope that as our daughters get older that they will choose to invite any "approved dates" to our Valentine's Day date instead of going out.