Valentine's Day EVERY DAY!

Hey Everyone!! Hopefully you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I know I did!
Holidays are always fun, I think we tend to put extra effort into being nice and making someone's day and appreciating our friends. I'm here to tell you that every day can be Valentine's Day! That's right, the fun doesn't have to start and end on February 14th!
Take a look at this verse:
““A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”” John 13:34-35
According to God, loving one another isn't just an extra thing you can do a few days a year. It's a COMMAND. Love should be a continuous thing. My prayer is that you all emanate God's love all the time! Todos los dias.
So what does it look like to emanate love? Well, a person who loves would be...
patient.
kind.
not jealous.
not boastful or proud.
not rude.
selfless.
even-tempered.
forgiving.
repulsed by evil.
excited about truth.
protective of loved ones.
trusting.
hopeful.
persevering.
That's a pretty extensive and radical list! Still, if we make an effort every day, with help from God and His people- we can live in a way that reflects every single one of those characteristics. The Holy Spirit is here to help us make loving choices. We have the Bible as a guidebook and encourager.
One psalm says to God- Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love. In this culture, it takes a lot for us to be satisfied, but God promises that once we drink his living water and eat his bread of life, we will be satisfied. If we are truly satisfied and saturated with agape love each morning, I think we have enough to last us and those around us through the day. Ask God to fill you with so much love that you can't help but give it away, and then praise him. When we praise God, we start to recognize how amazing he is, and since he IS love, we also start to realize how amazing love is, and how much love has been lavishly poured out on us. Then we can start the adventure of living life like it's Valentine's Day- taking the love we receive and radiating it.

By the way, the word love is mentioned 586 times in The Message and 686 times in the New International Bible (according to www.biblegateway.com) That's PLENTY of love to get us through every day of the year.

"So this is my prayer: that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. Live a lover's life, circumspect and exemplary, a life Jesus will be proud of: bountiful in fruits from the soul, making Jesus Christ attractive to all, getting everyone involved in the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11 The Message

Show You Love

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so I want to talk about love.

How do you let people know that you love them?

I give them hugs.
I write on their facebook walls ;)
I smile when I see them.
I listen to them.
I make them cookies.
I share my tea with them!
I forgive them.

Sometimes we just straight up say it. The phrase "I love you" is overused so much that the phrase "the phrase 'I love you' is overused" is even overused. Sometimes we give gifts. On Valentine's Day, couples give chocolate, flowers, jewelry, etc. to each other. Parents sometimes give special gifts to their children (one year my parents gave me a guinea pig) and little kids pass out "valentines" with cute little sayings on them. I think that, minus the materialism, giving gifts is a good example of what love is about. It's not about receiving, but about giving. It's not about you, but about those you love.

This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sin.


The amazing thing about showing love isn't that we are able to give gifts (material or not) to those who love us, but that we are able to give gifts of love regardless of whether the person loves us back. This Valentine's Day, show love to someone who hasn't shown any love to you. After all, our unique ideas about love are what set us apart as Christians. Unconditional love is not easy to understand, but we have the perfect example to look to- Jesus Christ.