***Make Valentine's Day 365 Days a Year

By America’s #1 Love and Marriage Experts. Today, we were on an hour show with a “blow-torch” radio station, talking about love, relationships, and Valentine’s Day. We had a blast! It is always fun reaching the folks with our positive message about our more than 30 years of research on love and marriage on all seven of the world's continents in 47 countries. What made this particular show notable today, and separated it from the hundreds of radio and television shows we have done, is a comment from someone who called in to the show. His name was “Frank” and his observation was right on and supported our research on successful love and marriage on six of the world’s seven continents! Frank made a simple comment and it went like this – “Everyday of successful love and marriage is Valentine’s Day!” Truer words were never spoken! We could not agree more. Frank has it right! Here’s the truth. If people who purport to be in love only express their love to the one they say they love on Valentine’s Day, their so-called “loving relationship” is questionable. We do not express this notion lightly! Here’s why. You can never, ever, take the one you love for granted. Never, ever assume that Valentine’s Day – that once-a-year celebration of love – can take the place of 365 days of your expressions of love throughout the year. No dozen roses, poignant Valentine’s Cards, and dinners out will ever replace your daily expressions of love for the one you love. None of your expressions of love will ever replace your time with the one you love. And frankly, none of these acts will ever replace the time they spend with you throughout the other 364 days of the year. Make no mistake about it – Valentine’s Day is an important day of celebration for love. We don’t want to minimize this notion. But in the end, Valentine’s Day, as a celebration of love, should occur everyday – through expressions of love, simple acts of kindness, by the daily respect you show your lover, by your “actions of love,” and by the way you treat the one you love. Valentine’s Day should occur everyday of the year – all 365 days. And in a Leap Year, you get an extra day! What could be better than that? Let this Valentine's Day be the first of many Valentine's Days to come on each day of 2013. Creating a successful marriage is not always the easiest thing to do. Your visiting our blog suggests you are highly interested in making your relationship and marriage work! And truthfully, we have learned over 30 years of marriage research that there are proven effective ways to ensure a happy and healthy marriage. In fact, we took hundreds of tips from the thousands of happy couples we interviewed and put them into our bestselling book, Building a Love that Lasts. This multiple award-winning book -- first in hard cover then in paperback - - is still the standard handbook for marriage and relationships for five years running. **Today, you can see how you stack up to the best marriages around the world. Take the Marriage Quiz to assess your chances of achieving a successful marriage of your own. By Dr. Charles D. Schmitz and Dr. Elizabeth A. Schmitz