Some may call Valentine's Day the "most romantic day of the year." It can also be called "the most depressing day of the year." Is this a day for only "lovers" to celebrate, or can everyone get in on this day of love? Some of my kids were handing out little valentine cards to all of their classmates, and all of them are at least doing cookies and punch or something today. My husband and I had an early Valentine's lunch date last week, and we will give each of our kids a little gift today. As romantic as my husband can be, that is not his best quality. One of the things I find so great about my man is his genuineness. He is not afraid to tell others (including me) how he feels and what he thinks. He is smart enough (usually) to not blurt out everything that is on his mind, but he has a gift of telling people what they need to hear. He is honest and direct, even when it hurts. I am much more of a "beat around the bush" -type of person.
We do not often wear our "W.W.J.D" clothing and accessories anymore, but we still think of the sentiment often. For those who do not know, WWJD is an acronym for "What would Jesus do?" Jesus, both fully human and fully God, taught others how God wants them to be. He taught that God wants us to love Him with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and to love others like you love yourself. If you follow those two things, then you are following Him. My husband loves God with all of himself, and he loves others deeply. He loves Jesus more than he loves me, and that is exactly how it should be. I also love Jesus more than I love my husband, and we still can love each other more today than we did yesterday.
Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of Being and ideal Grace. I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight. I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love with a passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose With my lost saints, -- I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! -- and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death.
As romantic as the above poem is, romantic love is not above the love God has for us. He loves us more than we can understand. Knowing that God loves me more than anyone else is comforting and soothing. This Valentine's day is not just for romantic couples, but those who are single too.
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.
13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13
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