{A Day for Love}

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Lots of people think Valentine's Day is highly overrated.  It's just another ploy getting people to spend money on chocolate and flowers.

There is also the group of people that have simply labeled it as Singles Awareness Day. 

What if we adjusted our mindset and decided to embrace what quite possibly could be a really cool day? 

Is there a lot of commercialism surrounding Valentine's Day? Absolutely. 

$5.99 for a red and white card in order to tell your spouse that you love them? Ridiculous.

But what if we look at the day as being about more than Cupid and his arrows?

It doesn't have to just be about mushy, lovey-dovey stuff. Love is more than kisses and candlelight dinners, ya know.

Valentine's Day holds many wonderful memories for me, not because I was always romantically involved with someone, but because it was a day I always made a point of spending with people I loved.

As a kid, we would make Valentines to pass around to each other, or Mom would do hide 'n seek games leading us to a secret stash of candy. There was always gummy hearts in a dish on the counter, or boxes of Conversation Hearts on a shelf. 

In my early teen years, the family started a tradition of going a bagel shop for VDay breakfast -- bagels, cream cheese, and steaming mugs of hot cocoa all around! When I started working nearby, I tried to find a way to sneak in and at least say Hi before stealing a couple sips of cocoa from a younger sibling's mug and heading back to the office. 

As I got older, I often spent the evening with a group of my girlfriends. We'd throw parties, have dinner somewhere really cool, catch a concert, or whatever else fun we could come up with. Our time was always about commemorating the blessing of our friendship and love for one another.

When the winter of 2008 rolled around, and a guy friend of mine from church had two tickets to a Casting Crowns concert, which happened to be on Valentine's Day. Knowing it would be uncomfortable for him to ask another guy to go with him, given the day the concert fell on, he asked me.  And I said Yes.

I had no idea that Yes would change the rest of my life.

He picked me up that afternoon, surprising me with a movie and delicious dinner before we headed to the concert. I have no photographs from this day, except maybe a blurry shot of the stage taken from my cell phone, yet all the memories created in those few hours will forever be imprinted on my heart and in my mind. We became friends that day....and it became my favorite Valentine's day memory of all time. (And should I mention that eight months later I had the honor of becoming his wife?)

We all have somebody in our life that we love....someone who is special to us. What if we used this day to reach out and be a blessing to them, instead of dwelling on the rose bouquet we might not have received, or the hot date we might not have for dinner.

What if we took this time to tell somebody we loved them. 

What if we made the day less about ourselves and more about showing love to somebody who doesn't feel very loved right now.

Think about it.

"I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." - John 15:11-12

What's your best Valentine memory?