Thursday, February 14, 2008

Valentines day

I read a few articles today about valentines day, some were written by bitter people that have had bad experience seeking love from someone, and they talked about how valentines day brings back a rush of pain and frustration. Others were written by people in love, but they wrote about how much money they were going to spend to celebrate the holiday and inevitably how one gift or another simply would not be good enough, or might be too much or could cause a break-up etc. Either way it just strikes me that valentines day has become all about "me" and not about genuinely letting the people closest to us know that we love them. It should not be about the gifts or coming up with the perfect "valentine's day date" but about genuinely sharing your love with people in your life whether it's friends, family, husband, wife or your neighbor. Honestly, for me as a single guy valentines day has generally been a day that I just avoided and didn't put much focus on, but as I was thinking about it I realized that I needed to view valentines day as a reminder of the greatest love ever shown to anyone and that is the love that God has lavished on us by sending Jesus to rescue us from a life of sin and death. That is truly the greatest love story in all the world, there will never be one to top it, and I'm a part of that love story, and I need to include others in the story too. Valentines is an opportunity to share God's love, it's a day to let others know that they are loved by Jesus, and quite honestly that is the only love that really matters! Really though, not to sound corny but as a Christian every day should be "valentines day" that every day I should strive to let those around me know they are loved, not just accepted or tolerated but truly loved because that is how God loves me. I hope you have a great valentines day!!