So many people go searching for their true love in nightclubs, singles clubs, through online dating sites and among friends of friends. The truth is, finding true love starts right in your own home - or, more accurately, in your own heart.
Before you can find true love in a relationship, you must find it within yourself.
Here are three simple ways to attain true love for you, yourself, and your life as a whole. You'll be amazed at how quickly romantic love will follow.
• Be thankful for everything (including your mistakes). Learn to be thankful for the good things in your life. That will help you appreciate all the small things and give you a happier, positive outlook (which, by the way, is very attractive.) Be thankful for your mistakes, too. Everything in your life, both the triumphs and the stumbles, shape us as people. Mistakes are valuable learning experiences and, when viewed as such and appreciated, regrets and bitterness of yesterday will fade away. Peace and love will enter in to your life immediately!
• Forgive others so that you can forgive yourself. Forgiving is as much for you as it is for the person who did you wrong. For starters, when you can forgive others, you can forgive yourself. Some of us are harder on ourselves than anyone else would ever be. We need to be as forgiving of our own faults and misdeeds as we are other people's. Holding onto anger and resentment, whether it's directed at someone else or ourselves, robs us of opportunities for joy. Truly forgive whoever's hurt you - you don't have to like them! - and fully experience happiness.
• Find enjoyment and satisfaction in every day. Strive to find the happiness in your average, workaday life. For most of us, a typical Friday will be a much happier day than a typical Monday, but live each average Monday to its fullest as you would live each fun Friday to the fullest! If you strive to live in love each day, then you will have no regrets. There are many more average days than holidays and vacations - don't waste them! Find satisfaction in your work, enjoy the process of doing a good job and learning new skills, and every day will be an abundance of joy.
In my book, The Good News: How Revealing Delusions In Christianity Will Bring Peace To All (www.thegoodnewsbook.com), I lay out the numerous biblical instructions to love, forgive and be grateful. If we each apply these simple teachings to our own lives, no matter what our religion, we'll create a happier world.
To both the people with a special someone and those without - be thankful. Love and happiness come from within, not from another person. We all have something to celebrate, not only at Valentine's Day but all year long.
About Shay Dawkins
Shay Dawkins is a Tuscaloosa, Alabama, businessman who grew up in Baptist and Pentecostal churches. His observances about how Christianity can be divisive despite being based on one book led to his analysis of the Bible. Check out his YouTube video, "Why It Should Be About Love, Not Religion."
