It's all about the love.

Image © Anne Ruthmann Photography. All Rights Reserved.

With February being crowned official Love Month, thanks to Valentine's Day being smack dab in the middle of it, we've adopted a love-related mantra to repeat throughout the month and possibly longer if it continues to be effective – and so far, it has been :)

Here it is:

"Love conceals all blemishes."

The mantra is based in part on Proverbs 17:9, which states, "He who covers an offense promotes love; but he who repeats a matter separates best friends." (World English Bible)

In modern terms, love is like the make-up worn on the face of your relationship. It's the part that everyone sees when you're out in public, with your friends, at your church, in a bar or at the grocery store. A lot of people spend hours getting ready to go "out" but pay little consideration to how they look at home. Similarly, like make-up, we often rub love off the minute we get home, allowing past transgressions, hurts or resentments get the better of us.

This is where the February mantra comes into play.

Make-up is used to accentuate the best features of your face. Love can do the same thing to your relationship. By repeating this mantra whenever you may be tested by your spouse or Other, it not only reminds you of this point, it also reminds how you would like to be treated by the other person. Wouldn't you love it if your spouse/bf/gf just overlooked all your little flaws and faults and only focused on your best features? By doing that for them, you will be creating the potential for them to return the favor.

Love conceals all blemishes. That means ALL blemishes. Think of love as the foundation (notice a theme here?) for the face of your marriage or dating relationship. From this foundation, you have a nice, smooth, EVEN surface to work from as you locate and detect the best parts that are worth drawing attention to.

In summary, by thinking of your relationship as one body with a visible "face" that is present both in public and private, you can artfully use love as the make-up that conceals all the blemishes that you both have to bring out the true beauty of your relationship and share it with the rest of the world. This means DON'T point out every little thing that needs to be corrected -- let the other person work on themself -- and instead try to conceal those blemishes by remembering that true love is unconditional; whether the toilet lid is left up or not ;)

Every relationship has the potential to be beautiful, especially with the right shade of make-up -- unconditional love -- applied to it in an authentic and meaningful way. A little dab here, a swoosh there, and before you know it, your relationship will be runway-ready in no time.

For further lovie-dovie inspiration, listen to "Fade Into You" by Mazzy Star, turn down the lights, pour two glasses of wine, and...well, you know. :)

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–Tommy Pesavento is an Addy® award-winning copywriter, graphic designer and avid blogger based out of Portsmouth, NH. He also currently serves as Chief Creative Officer and Social Media Consultant for spark* Creative Services. Tommy lives with his wife and creative muse, Jen, and their tabby cat/adopted daughter, Miss Kitty Lee.