V-Day

 


Ahhhhh....Valentine's Day.

Can I be honest? I don't really like Valentine's Day. Never have. And this distaste probably originates with the humiliating high school tradition of valentine carnations. You know that tradition where you can order carnations for someone and then they interrupt classes all day to hand them out. And at the end of the day there's this huge unannounced competition as everyone heads to their cars. The parking lot is the stage and everyone stops and stares to see how many carnations you received. And I usually had about one. And it was usually from my friend, Whitney. And I loved it but of course I still felt inept as I watched the other girls curtsy across the stage while showing off their flowers. Okay I may have struggled a teensy tiny little bit with insecurity as a teen. But the tradition continued to annoy me even when I transitioned from student to teacher. I remember my first Valentine's Day as a teacher when my class was interrupted to hand some popular girl a flower that would soon die. I stood there thinking "Oh Crap. They still do this. Seriously?!" (And I also secretly wondered if I would get one.)

But here's the thing, the idea that we only celebrate love one day out of the year annoys me even more than fake carnation popularity contests. And then on the one day that we do celebrate love, the fact that the celebration is so focused on romantic love annoys me even more. And I know everyone says that's not what V-Day is all about, but really, try explaining that to the people who don't have significant others to buy dying carnations for.  And I have a significant other to celebrate with, but luckily we both think this holiday is not the best; therefore, we use it as an excuse to compete in buying the other one the funniest card and seeing who laughs the hardest. And by funniest I mean raunchiest. And we haven't exchanged yet this year, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna win.

And please don't misunderstand, I definitely think love is worth celebrating. And I did enjoy watching my children cover each other with hugs and kisses this morning and tell each other what their siblings mean to them. That is definitely worth some celebration. Just the fact that Isaac was hugging Emma Grace rather than hitting her in the head with his wet pull-up was worth celebration. But I think love is worth celebrating every. single. day.

Listen to this:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not 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 have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have no love, I gain nothing."

1 Corinthians 3:1-3

Read it again.
Holy Cow. Even if I have faith to move mountains, but no love, I am NOTHING. Even if I gave everything I owned to the poor and gave myself up, but don't love, I gain NOTHING.

You know that book I just quoted has a lot of "rules". Many of them are considered pretty strange in today's world: things like don't wear gold jewelry, or braid your hair, or work on Sunday, or give vague and cryptic facebook statuses that nobody can understand (okay I may have made that last one up), but you know what the number one commandment is?

Yup. You guessed it. To Love.

"Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.' "

Matthew 22:37-39

Hhhmmmmm, so the greatest thing we're called to do is love. Maybe somebody tore the page out of my bible that talks about it, but I haven't seen February 14th mentioned in there one time. And I may be going out on a limb here, but I'm thinking if I AM nothing and GAIN nothing without love, I may want to celebrate it more than one day a year whether I have a significant other or a carnation or so many carnations that I'm choking on the carnation stench. I may want to wake up every day and greet those around me with hugs and kisses and love. Because every morning that I wake up, I'm greeted with love. Even on days that I least deserve it, God loves me. Actually, especially on days that I least deserve it, He loves me. And that rocks my socks off.

So enjoy your Valentine's Day. Seriously. Celebrate the crap out of the love you have for your significant other and your children and your parents and your friends. But most of all celebrate the love He has for you, because dude, you are loved. And that is worth celebrating today and tomorrow and maybe even again on Thursday.