Valentine’s Day Thought

“What do you do for Valentine’s day?” This question comes up every year, as do the other holiday traditions that well meaning people ask every year. Traditions change for the empty nester, as they do when your life partner dies, but Valentine’s Day is a bit different. People don’t like to hear the words”Nothing” and the response usually elicits pity. But, for the record, I probably said nothing when Jim was still living!

We did exchange a thought or a card and occasionally flowers or chocolate, but mostly the day was too busy or expensive and felt contrived. Valentine’s Day, like carrying Christmas in your heart, is to be celebrated every day of the year. If there is a day to pull out all the stops it should be anniversaries!

Saint Valentine of Rome was a priest who was persecuted for performing weddings for soldiers who had been forbidden to marry, making him the patron saint of love! The day (like so many other special days) is so much more than what we have reduced it to in the way of heart shaped candy and Cupid. The day is meant to celebrate sacrificial love; the kind of love that is lived out when it is really difficult like when the kids are sick, the budget is tight, and there are pressures at work. It is the lifestyle that models servanthood and consistent commitment all the days of one’s life, through the busyness, the brokenness, the ugliness.

My husband knew me better than anyone else and saw me at my worst yet he never stopped loving me, relentlessly prayed for me and faithfully served as a model of the love that Christ has for his bride. It is about building romance by reflecting God everyday. It is about bringing out the best in each other, putting others first, honoring your family, being thankful and learning another language, the love languages, that you learn to speak fluently.