Casandra Martin

Wondering what to give your sweetie tomorrow for Valentine’s Day? The best gifts don’t come wrapped in red or pink, have bows tied around them, or crinkle with shiny paper. The best gifts are the ones you give from the heart.

Here are ten commitments to give your beloved that will let your love blossom and grow in God-shaped ways.

1. I give you space and grace.
2. I give you tenderness of word, touch, and look.
3. I will celebrate the unique wonderfulness of you.
4. I give you my focus, my attention, and my consideration.
5. I will listen to your words, and even more to your silence.
6. I will lift you up with gentleness and kindness.
7. I will let you go first, choose your favorite, and have the biggest piece.
8. I will soak my words in joy and humility before I speak them.
9. I will keep a running count of all the ways God has blessed me through you.
10. I will tell you how proud I am of the way you look like Jesus.

My Jesus Resolution today is to choose the best gifts. I am going to cut out a big red heart, write these ten gifts on the paper, and give it to the ones I love the most. The neat thing is these are gifts that I can give to anyone with whom I want to share my heart. As I put my gifts on paper, I am going to let the words of I Corinthians 13:4-8a become my heartbeat. “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.”