Hello again my faithful blog readers! Um........I do have faithful blog readers, right?........Hello. Is this thing on?
Anyhow, with Valentine's Day quickly approaching, I have been thinking about a lot of things. One thing that I have been thinking about is the origin of Valentine's Day. I knew that it had something to do with St. Valentine being martyred many years ago. So I did what any curious person does nowadays: I Googled it. Turns out that the origin of Valentine's Day is shrouded in a lot of legend and myth, So much so that the truth cannot be fully found. What I found is three prevailing stories on how Valentine's Day came about.
Story one is that King Claudius II of the Roman army figured that single men made better soldiers than married men, so he banned all soldiers from being married. Valentine (a priest) refused to heed this law and continued to marry soldiers. He was executed. The second story is that Claudius II asked Valentine to renounce his faith in Christ. Valentine refused. He was executed. The final go-around says that Valentine was imprisoned for trying to help other Christians who were imprisoned. While in the hoosegow, he befriended the jailer's daughter. The night before he was executed, he wrote her a letter and signed it, "from your Valentine" (thus writing the first Valentine's Day card).
So without being able to find the true origin of Valentine's Day, my thoughts turned to another aspect of Valentine's Day. And that is: Valentine's Day is the most despised holiday of the American calendar. I know some of you may be thinking "Did you eat one too many boxes of chocolates?!? V-Day rocks!" That is true...to an extent. If you have ever been by yourself on V-Day (sorry...it's a catchy abbreviations), you know that it can be hard watching others hold hands, open gifts, kiss, etc while you long to have someone for yourself......or long to have that someone who was special back in your life.
I say all of this to bring out a few points of truth. While we as Americans spend millions of dollars on flowers, cards, lingerie (only for the married folk!), chocolate, and those yummy little candy hearts with the messages on them, our gifts cannot buy us love. The flowers will wilt, the chocolates will be eaten, the cards will be tossed into the trash, the lingerie will end up on the floor (you know it's true), and the little yummy candy hearts.......well, you can a big stash of those to eat throughout the year!.......um, but they'll get stale. These things will all fade, and then you are right back to "business as usual". You continue to live your life with the person you professed to love on Feb. 14th. What I'm trying to get at is it doesn't really matter what you do for a person on one day of the year. Yes, it's nice to get a card, or flowers, or chocolates, or lingerie (I'm guessing at that one), or those yummy little candy hearts, but you can't sustain a relationship for 364 more days by going all out on one day. The truth is, we shouldn't need Valentine's Day. Our loved ones should know that we love them EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR. Let what you do on Valentine's Day be a reflection of what your relationship is every day. And if your relationship with the people you love isn't that great....well, you have 364 more days until the next Valentine's Day. Get working on it.
The second point I want to make is we celebrate the death of a man who lived 1,700 years ago by giving each other stuff. The holiday has become so much about US that we can't even remember what really happened to HIM. And as sad as that is, it brings out a truth: no matter what you do in this lifetime to be remembered by your fellow man, you will be forgotten. Maybe not right away, but at some point, generations will forget you. They may remember a name (like George Washington) and may remember some actions you did (he did something significant....what was it......oh yeah! Chopped down a cherry tree!) but they will forget who YOU really were. But here is what you need to keep in mind: The greatest love we were and will be ever shown was by a man who was fully man and fully God, Jesus Christ, who gave His life for us when we were at our worst ("while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" - Romans 5:8). And one of the best parts about this: HE will never forget who we are! The Psalms say that He knew us before we were formed in our mother's womb and Revelation tells us that when we repent of our sins and trust in Christ Jesus, we will dwell with Him for all eternity. How incredible is that! It's better than any flower, chocolate, lingerie, or candy heart that we can buy. If you don't know Christ, I plead you to come and be part of the greatest love story ever. If you do know Him, praise Him for first loving us!
Well, that is all for this post. Turn off your computer, turn off your TV, spend some time with the ones you love. Hug them. Kiss them. Not just on Monday, but every day you can.
Thanks for reading to the bottom. For you J, Daily bread (and yummy little candy hearts) and daily strength.
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