How much money is being spent on this one day? How many flowers are being bought, candies being given, and dinners being reserved. Why is it that we make such a big deal of one day a year, when we should be celebrating Valentine’s Day all year long?
Well, let’s back up. Did you know that Valentine’s Day started to honor an early Christian Martyr (Saint Valentine) who loved people well and during his final hours wrote a letter to a prison warden and signed it ‘your Valentine’.
Isn’t it amazing how fast we went from honoring someone who loved well to making it all about squishy, sentimental, expensive selfish love?
From sacrificing your life for the love of people to buying gifts that have often little meaning and are just promoted by our consumer industry.

Don’t get me wrong, Valentine’s Day is a beautiful day to remember and care for our loved ones, but it is so much more!

How do I love the person who just cut me off in traffic? How do love the youth who just flipped me off? How do I love the person who smells bad? How do I love the person who has other political views? How do I love the person whose religion is different? How do I love the senior who keep repeating their stories? How do I love my abuser?

Love is more then a feeling, more then a box of chocolate or a bunch of flowers. Love goes way deeper. There is a beautiful description of love:
“Love is large and incredibly patient. Love is gentle and consistently kind to all. It refuses to be jealous when blessing comes to someone else. Love does not brag about one’s achievements nor inflate its own importance. Love does not traffic in shame and disrespect, nor selfishly seek its own honor. Love is not easily irritated or quick to take offense. Love joyfully celebrates honesty and finds no delight in what is wrong. Love is a safe place of shelter, for it never stops believing the best for others. Love never takes failure as defeat, for it never gives up.” ‭‭1 Corinthians‬ ‭13‬:‭4‬-‭7‬ ‭TPT‬‬

I wonder if we could love like that if that would be closer to the original “Valentine’s Day”.