A Sweet Valentine

Sitting yet again on Valentines day with nothing more to show than just a few texts from my girls wishing me a 'happy valentines day' and some chocolate from my parents. Otherwise I've spent the day going to classes, doing school work, and nothing more. But, you know despite the fact that I'm single again, or should I say as usual, on this holiday I find myself remembering that I have a love that is far more greater than any Valentine card could say; I have the love of an almighty God who is holding out his arms to me. 

I feel like there are lies that often times seep into the minds of us women and I can't say it more brilliantly than how the author of Wild At Heart put it he said “No one is right for her heart; there is no grand adventure to be swept up in; and every woman doubts very much that she has any beauty to unveil.” Sadly we often fall into this idea that there is no one right for us, that we wont have an adventure to join in with and be swept away, and the worst lie we fall into is that we have no beauty to reveal, that we aren't beautiful enough and not good enough for the guy who we like, and care for. That is when we fall prey to the world and its standards of how to look, what to say, and the false reality of what "love" is. 

Love to the world is one where our prince charming comes and sweeps us off our feet, its where he is able to say all the right things, be able to do the all the right things, and is able to slay the dragon in a single stroke; sounds more of like Mr. Perfect to me. Love to the world though doesn't last, its a false reality of what love really is. There is a real love that is humble that is kind, and keeps no record of wrongs; that love comes from Jesus Christ. If you were to pick up the Bible and start reading it you would notice quickly that love comes spewing out of it, it is the greatest love letter ever written to anyone and its directed towards you! One passage that sticks out the most for me, at least when speaking of love is 1 Corinthians 13, this is what it says:

 "If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.  If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

              Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

                 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part,  but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

A love like that seems like it would be impossible but here is the kicker God is the god of impossibilities, he infact is love, so, nothing is impossible with him not even being able to love one another as he has called us to love  

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

So my dear friends when Valentines day comes along remember that you are loved by a God who IS LOVE, he doesn't just speak it, he breaths it. As one of my favorite authors has said,

"Love the Lord your God, and love one another. Love one another as He loves. Love with strength and purpose and passion and no matter what comes against you. Don't weaken. Stand against the darkness, and love. That's the way back into Eden. That's the way back to life."-Francine Rivers

My friends, love each other with the way that God loves, with patients, kindness, humility, protecting, and forgiving. So I hope that you have had and will have many more happy Valentine's days with the sweetest valentine of all, God who knows you and loves you the most and always will. And remember as C.S. Lewis said "Though our feelings come and go, God's love for us does not."