HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!

I hope everyone had a great Valentine’s Day. In honour of the day, I decided to focus on love during my devotions today.
As I’ve written about before, a lot of my friends are married. Out of the ten girls that were in my Sunday School class growing up, I’m the only one not married or engaged. This means that I’ve been to my fair share of weddings. As traditional as cutting the cake and tossing the bouquet, 1 Corinthians has worked its way into many weddings. Out of the many quotes about love, I personally feel that Paul’s description is nearly perfect:

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is
not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it keeps no record of wrongs. Love not does delight in evil, but
rejoices in the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
always perseveres.
- 1 Corinthians 13: 4-6

What many of us are unaware of, or don’t reflect upon often (for me personally), is that the Bible is filled with many other examples of love, scattered throughout both the Old and New Testament. Love for our friends, love for our fellow believers, love for our enemies, and love for Christ are only some of the many types of loves discussed. I’ve chosen a few verses that I came across today that really impacted me:

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. – 1 John 4:7

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. – John 15:12-13

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.- 1 John 4:16

Since there’s no significant other in my life, my Valentine this year has four legs, a tail, and weighs about ten pounds. Of course, I’m talking about Jack! We started off the day with a bang. He somehow managed to find a cinnamon heart and nearly chocked on it. I guess I’m a bad mom, because I was munching on some last night and I didn’t realize I had dropped one. Jack found the stray heart, and just as the words “Jack, NO! Don’t eat that!” came out of my mouth, he tried to swallow it and chaos broke out! Luckily, I got to him right away, and he really didn’t seem too flustered by the episode.
Part of the reason I love Jack so much is because of his unconditional love for me. He doesn’t care if I’m having a bad hair day, if I’m behind in class, if my articles for the paper are disastrous; he just loves me for me. My favourite non-Biblical quotation about love is from William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116: “Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds”. Someone once told me that only very lucky people can count more than five people who love them unconditionally. As a child of the Lord, I know that He will always love me, no matter what. There will be times where I will stumble, times when I don’t act as I should or when I sin, and yet He will always love me. That’s so much better than cinnamon hearts and chocolate! And for a girl who’s still looking for Mr. Right, it’s a great consolation on Valentine’s Day. Frankly, that’s a gift that’s worth celebrating not only every February 14, but every day!
We are all aware of Christ’s love for us. John 3:16 clearly states that for God so LOVED the world that he gave his only begotten son. He gave the ultimate gift, His son, so that we may have ever-lasting life. In comparison to this, He asks very little in return from us:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. – Deuteronomy 6:5

In Christian Love;

*L

Here’s my Valentine (clearly, he lives a stressful life!):