One of my favorite movies is The Family Man starring Nicolas Cage and Tea Leoni. Cage plays a man who left his college sweetheart to pursue his career. Fifteen years later, he is single, a rich Wall Street tycoon, and loves his life (or so he thinks). After encountering an angel, he gets to live out what his life would have looked like had he chosen to marry the girl he left. Instead of being the king of New York, he begrudgingly becomes a married father of two kids living in New Jersey. As he tries to assimilate into this foreign life, he sees pictures and videos of himself as a husband and father. The thing that shocks him most is how happy he appears. At one point, he even looks at a picture of his happily married self and exclaims, “What are you smiling about?” The beautiful part of the movie is that he gradually becomes the man he sees in that picture.
The man he becomes is one that cherishes his family—his kids, yes, but particularly his wife. Over time, it is clear that something he puts a considerable amount of time and creativity into is celebrating her. He makes her feel special and loved. Celebrating our wives not only makes them feel cared for, but it deepens our love for them. Your heart will be where you invest your time and energy. Do you wonder how to show your wife you love her? Here are 7 creative ways.
Your heart will be where you invest your time and energy.1. Love Story
Write your love story from your perspective. Talk about how you met and the things you were feeling. Communicate the details in her beauty and characteristics that made you fall for her. Include the funny and tender moments. Focus on the meaningful dates and when you knew she was “the one.” If you want to take it up a level, include pictures, and have it bound. Shutterfly has easy options you can try. This will not only make her feel loved, but it will be a gift to your children to know how they came to be.
2. Love Note
Write a simple love note. Just write down everything you love about her. Start out every sentence with, “I love…” Think of as many as you can. You will be surprised how quickly the number of sentences will add up once you get started. Give it to her any way you want. Print it on beautiful paper, frame it, put it in a card or even just email it to her as a casual surprise in the middle of the day.
3. Newspaper Cross-Out
I’m not endorsing the movie Mystery Alaska, but it has a shining husband move. Russell Crowe’s character took the Dear Abby section of a newspaper and crossed out every word, except the ones that described his wife and how he felt about her. Then he had her read them. When she says, “All the words are crossed out.” He replies, “Not the important ones.”
4. Video
Put together a video collage of your life together. Input pictures and home video clips with music. This may take, at least, a limited knowledge of using video software. There may be a learning curve, but she will love it and you. If your kids are old enough, have them help you. After all, they are all tech natives.
5. Scrabble
Buy a game of Scrabble. Spell your wife’s name in the middle. Build a puzzle of all of the words that describe her off of her name. Leave it out where she will see it. You can even make it permanent by gluing the letters to the board and hanging it up.
6. Book of Encouragement
Have friends and family write a paragraph about the things they love about her. Give plenty of time for them to think about it and follow through. Collect all the letters and put them together in a book. Take it up a level by adding a picture of your wife and the person next to the note he or she wrote about her. Shutterfly makes this pretty easy.
7. Music Message
Call her out of the blue and play the song the two of you danced to at your wedding. Leave it on her voice mail if she doesn’t answer. It’s simple, but it will touch her knowing you are thinking of her and that special day.
Want a bonus? Try doing this Husband and Wife Bucket List together!
Sound off: What is the most creative thing you have done to show your wife you love her?
Huddle up with your kids and ask, “How can we celebrate Mom this week?”