Kathi Lipp - 101 Simple Ways to Show Your Husband You Love Him

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

All Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Cover by Harvest House Publishers, Inc.

Cover artwork Becca Cahan

Published in association with Books & Such Management, 52 Mission Circle, Suite 122, PMB 170, Santa Rosa, CA 95409-5370, www.booksandsuch.com.

101 SIMPLE WAYS TO SHOW YOUR HUSBAND YOU LOVE HIM

Copyright 2016 by Kathi Lipp

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Lipp, Kathi,

101 simple ways to show your husband you love him / Kathi Lipp.

pages cm

ISBN 978-0-7369-5702-1 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-5703-8 (eBook)

1. MarriageReligious aspectChristianity. I. Title. II. Title: One hundred one simple ways to show your husband you love him. III. Title: One hundred and one simple ways to show your husband you love him.

BV835.L529 2016

248.8'435dc23

2015025539

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To Chris and Vikki Francis

When you bought me that computer thirteen years ago, you did more than invest in a piece of equipmentyou invested in me at a point when there was no proof that your gamble was going to pay off. I am forever grateful that you had the holy vision to see something in me that I would have never seen in myself.

Thank you for your example of loving God, loving others, and loving each other. You are life changers.

Great thanks go to Erin MacPherson, Cheri Gregory, Susy Flory, Renee Swope, Michele Cushatt, and Crystal Paine. So grateful to each and every one of you.

Thanks to Amanda and Shaun, Jeremy, Justen, and Kimberly. Love you more than is reasonable.

My team: Angela Bouma, Sherri Johnson, Brooke Martinez, and Kimber Hunter. You are faithful, inspiring, and a gift.

Rachelle Gardnerproud to call you agent.

Rod Morrisyou make writing 80 percent less painful. In other words, you are a miracle.

Harvest House PublishersI love that I get to call you home.

To our families: The Richersons, the Lipps, and the Dobsons. All my love.

To my friends at Church on the Hill in San Jose, California, and especially Scott and Kelli Simmerok. So grateful to call you home.

And finally to Roger. You are the reason for all of this. How do you pay someone for giving you your life back? I will just keep showing up and loving you every single day. Shut the door, baby.

Contents

Thank you for showing up for your husband.

Im excited that there is a group of women who still want to say, My marriage is important, and my husband is important. Which, it seems, is not very fashionable these days. In fact, as I was writing this book, husbands who talked to me about what was important to them were almost apologetic.

Im going to sound like a caveman, but I love it when my wife dresses up for me.

Is it OK to say that I love it when my wife has dinner on the table when I get home?

Yes, much of what these men told me sounded like it came straight out of a happy housewives manual from the fifties.

Dinner.

Looking nice.

Spending time together.

A clean house.

Yepit sounded positively archaic.

Since when did society get to determine what makes a man happy? If having a roast in the slow cooker makes my man happy, who am I to tell him hes wrong? (I still like it when my man kills bugs for me. Does that make me a betrayer of my sex?)

What weve come to understand is that what makes a man feel loved hasnt changed much. What has changed is the role women play. We are no longer solely caretakers of the homewe work outside the home (or inside, as many of us work or run businesses from our kitchen table). We have dozens of responsibilities in addition to keeping our man satisfied and happy. So how does a real, true-to-life wife actually get it done?

We need to keep it simple.

Im not telling you to do all 101 things described in this book at the same time. Even Wonder Woman had to get her cape cleaned every once in a while. But I am saying, try these outand see what your husband responds to. You may figure out a whole new way to love your man.

OK, 101 ideas is a lot. And while I can get pretty creative when it comes to loving on my man, I have friends who are way more creative than I am. So I asked them to contribute their best ideas. Ive included ideas from some of my buddies who have giant marriage books and websites, as well as from friends who just have great marriages. I know youll be as encouraged as I was reading through all their ideas.

Super Simple Scriptures

If you are looking to see real change in the heart of your marriage, the best thing you can do is pray for yourself and your man. So in various places throughout this book I have provided some of my favorite Scriptures to pray for your marriage. Now, I could give you lists and lists of Scriptures to hang on to as you pray for your man (and in a couple of cases I do), but for the most part, I pulled up my favorites. One that has stuck with me over the years as I pray for Roger is Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

If we want the heart of our marriage to grow stronger, praying Scripture, in my opinion, is the best way to accomplish it.

Super Simple Scripts

Sometimes the way to show your husband you love him isnt an action, its a statement. So Ive offered a few simple scripts of things to say that will encourage your husband by showing him real love and affirmation. So simplebut so easily overlooked in our day-to-day lives.

Its easy to think, He should know this already! But its kind of like the joke about the couple thats been married for fifty years.

Wife : Why is it that you never tell me you love me?

Husband : I said I love you in our wedding vows. If something changes, Ill let you know.

We wives need to hear our husbands express their love for us more than once. We need to hear it often in order for it to sink in and really be believed. And so does your guy. So work some of the simple scripts Ive suggested into your everyday conversation.

You, Your Husband, and His Personality

Before introducing you to the 101 Simple Ways, I want to introduce you to a friend of mine. Her name is Cheri Gregory, and she and I wrote The Cure for the Perfect Life together. Cheri is a flat-out genius. (Its always good to have a few of those around to help you with projects, right?)

While the 101 ways are important, we have to realize that every man is unique. Some are going to get positively giddy over a plate of brownies, while for others, their dream come true is to be left alone for thirty minutes.