Open Your Heart
Valentine’s Day ... some folks love it ... some folks tolerate it ... while others dread it!
Which category do you find yourself in this year?
Would you take a walk down memory lane with me this Valentine’s Day of 2020?
Would you lay aside your preconceived notions and recall what Valentine’s Day meant in a simpler, gentler time?
Do you remember those Valentine Boxes we used to make in Elementary School?
I remember carefully decorating those sweet boxes with shades of pink and deep red in the days leading up to February 14. I can still see the white lace hearts that were provided for us to make our boxes look especially fetching.
I recall painstakingly printing my name in bold letters across the top of that important box and then deeply hoping for a Valentine from at least a few friends among my classmates.
“Be Mine”
“I think you’re swell”
“Hugs and Kisses”
Elementary school quickly passed into the days of sweaty palms, spin the bottle and the broken hearts of high school. How little I knew about true love during those important years!
And then came college … that time in life when you desperately hope to meet the prince charming of your dreams!
Every year on the morning of February 14, during my time at a Christian university, there were piles and piles of flowers that were delivered to the front desk of my dormitory.
Those flowers represented relationship.
Those flowers sang of smitten young men and the blushing girls whose heart had been captured.
I never received a bouquet of Valentine’s flowers during the first three years of college. My name was never called.
I wasn’t recognized as “special” … as “lovely” … or as “worthy”.
Finally, in the days leading up to Valentine’s Day of my senior year in college, my mom finally got smart! She knew what would transpire on the evening of February 14th, when I would call her sobbing on the phone about my love life. My mom, that year, had my sweet daddy send me flowers so that I would feel recognized and loved.
Oh! How I loved my dad for going along with mom’s precious yet savvy scheme!
As the years went by, however, I realized that Valentine’s Day was not really about how many cheap cards were placed in my decorated shoebox … or by who held my hand during the years of acne and hormones … or even by the flowers that had been sent especially to me.
The heart of this holiday of hearts is only discovered in my ability to love others and to open my heart to be loved in return.
Whether you are 16 or 86 ... here is my Valentine advice for you during this week that celebrates love and all that it embraces:
If you are happily married ... wholeheartedly love your husband today. Love with no regrets.
Love this man with reckless and complete abandon.
Treat your husband in an extra special way on this day that was made to honor “love” and “romance”. This need not cost a lot of money but it may require high levels of attention and gifts that come straight from the heart.
Fix his favorite meal ... watch his favorite movie with him ... find a copy of “your song” and play it for him first thing in the morning. Get up early and make coffee for him ... leave him a note on the dashboard of the car ... choose not to nag, criticize or complain for 24 entire hours!
If you are still waiting for your prince charming ... allow yourself to find fulfillment in the heart of the One Who knows you best and loves you the most. The startling truth is that even after you are married, Jesus should still be your First Love!
It is so important for single women to “wait well” during these days of single living. While you are in the days or years of waiting, resolve to serve others and to become the best “you” that you can be.
Go on missions’ trips!
Teach Sunday School!
Invite others over for dinner!
Babysit for free!
Prepare to run a marathon!
Take an extra class at college or at church!
Tell the pastor that you are available to serve your local church!
Women who “wait well” seldom “wait long” for fulfillment because they find satisfaction not in being loved but in loving others well!
If you have found yourself “suddenly single” due to rejection or divorce ... know that you serve a God Who will never leave you or forsake you. Do not build a wall around your broken heart but allow God to heal those broken places inside of you.
Pray with other single women and spend time with a mentor.
Join a Bible Study and allow your soul to flourish in the fertilization of the vibrant Word of God.
Reject bitterness and embrace His power and His joy.
If you are a widow ... it’s o.k. to enjoy a sweet memory or two ... but then choose to give to someone else today.
Perhaps you could babysit for a young couple so they could go out to dinner. If you are not able to do that ... slip a young couple a $10 or $20 so they can go out and enjoy the days they have been given to cultivate a lasting marriage.
And, finally, no matter what your marital status is or what your current love life looks like … find someone to love who is lonely … who is broken … who is baffled by the way that their life has turned out.
Don’t stay home and eat a whole container of ice cream while sobbing your way through a chick flick on Valentine’s Day … but instead invest your time by celebrating someone else!
The scripture verse that says, “Give and it shall be given into you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over …” doesn’t just apply to money but it certainly applies also to life and to love!
I don’t believe that celebrating love should merely be confined to Valentine’s Day ... but we should love others well every one of the other 364 days of the year!
God has placed you and me here … at this time in history … for one incredible purpose … to love His children.
I’m in … are you?
“But now, faith, hope and love abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.” - I Corinthians 13:13
Thanks for listening to my heart this week. As you know by now, my heart is truly not a perfect heart but it is a heart that is filled to overflowing with gratitude for the life I have been given and for the people who walk with me. And, it continues to be a heart that is relentlessly chasing after God and all that He is!