Valentine's Day- Attn: single ladies

I was going to write a new post about Valentine's Day, and then remembered I wrote one last year. It hasn't expired. So I pasted it below this. But I want to attach a note to my beautiful single ladies: I know what this holiday does to us. I can remember what it felt like. I know that just walking through HEB and being bombarded with the hearts and candy and junk that no one is going to buy for you can make you feel like a loser, for NO GOOD REASON. I also know, that when we copy the thinking of this world, we lose perspective on what God says. So please meditate on LOVE this weekend. Real love. God's love. And let the married women around you affirm for you that there is no love like God's. Our husbands are amazing, but everyday is not Valentine's Day, and if we didn't know God's love, we'd be empty inside. Romantic love doesn't fill you up. God does. So I'm praying you feel filled up to the very top this Valentine's Day, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, because you know the greatest love of all time!!!
So DON'T wear black on Valentine's Day.
DON'T throw a pity party, and send out pathetic invitations for other girls to join in.
DON'T act like God has forgotten you because you aren't in a romantic relationship.
DO remember, that by grace, He has saved you, when you did nothing to deserve it, and He loves you with an everlasting love.
Seriously, what more could we want from Him!?
Here's my old post...please read to the bottom because the scripture is there.

This week in school we are studying LOVE.
Don't worry folks, if you are concerned for our homeschooling education, we do academics out the wa-zoo. We finished a month studying the human body, and my kids are now ready to take the MCAT.
Our project for this week was to make 88 valentines for our friends at the nursing home. Good thing we recruited wonderful friends to help us. That would have been a lot of glitter flying in this house.
We had already decided Valentine's day would be our unit study, in addition to our math and reading, etc. We love holidays!
The kids know that there is a difference in certain holidays...some are God-holidays. We stop working and take time to worship, like at Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter. But some days are remembering days, like Veteran's Day, President's Day, or some are silly days, like Halloween, and National talk like a pirate day.
Emma asked me on Sunday night on the way home from church "Mom, is Valentine's Day a God-holiday."
I explained to her that the world does not think of it as a God-holiday, but it truly is! I was saved as a little girl on Valentine's day, which has always been a sweet reminder of my love relationship with the Lord. But the Bible says God IS love. Without God, there is no love.
As we were talking about this in the car, I felt impressed by the Holy Spirit that we would study Biblical love this week.
The world has already begun telling my kids what love is. I want them to know what God says love is.
I decided we would wipe the white board of our minds clean on love, and write only what God says about it in Sharpie.
Wouldn't that be cool if our minds really had a white board?
Rusty's would have more on his than mine. He stores a lot of info. When you have a job that requires you to be awakened up from a dead sleep and do complicated math, you have a lot of math on your whiteboard.
Good thing I'm only awakened to tend to children and stuff.
So I started on Monday morning copying all the verses I could find and write in my journal about love.
Monday, we learned the greatest commandment (we talked about in church this past weekend.)
Mark 12:30-31
30 And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.'
We should be THE MOST PASSIONATE about loving God, and everything else in our life should come as an overflow of that.

Tuesday we learned the second greatest commandment.
Mark 12:31
31 The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' No other commandment is greater than these."

But what does it mean to love others? What does that look like?
John 13:34-35
34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

So how did Jesus love?
1 John 3:16
16 We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us. And so we also ought to give up our lives for our Christian brothers and sisters.

John 15:12-14
12 I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. 13 And here is how to measure it — the greatest love is shown when people lay down their lives for their friends.

We have more ground to cover on God's love this week. How does the Bible describe God's love? How does that compare to the way we love each other?
There's so much. So much to erase. So much to Sharpie.
But it's been so good!
Labels: spiritual, Valentine's Day