Love Stories

Today is the first day of our annual study on Love. The greatest Love Story of all time is the story of Christ Crucified. This holiday belongs to us. The Lord is our Beloved and we are His.

St. Valentine was an actual person, though one we do not know much about. He lived in the 3rd century in Rome. He was a pastor and physician jailed for his belief in Jesus Christ. While it is difficult to sort the fact from the legend, both seem to point to a man who loved God and His people so much that he cared for them without regard for himself and his own safety. This kind of love, offering kindness in Christ’s name, this is worth celebrating!

Each year, I begin to pray for this holiday on February 1st. Here are some questions I ask myself:

1. Am I living in the palm of Your Hand My Lord? If I have been overly anxious, fearful, self-serving, guarded, stingy with time/money/love, help me to confess and turn my back on those behaviours that indicate a lack of trust in Your Love for me. Help me to live and trust in Your Love. Fill me up so that Your Love would come out of my hands, feet, and mouth.
2. How can I show love to my family this year in a way that will encourage them and honor You?
3. Who in my family needs special attention that I can give? How shall I give it?
4. How can I work with You to nurture Your Love in my children?
5. I ask the Holy Spirit to guide our study of Love this year.
6. I entrust (again, again and again) each person in my family to the most awesome love of God.

Family Preparation:
This celebration has given me the opportunity to teach my children to recognize and accept that they are truly loved. It has also helped me to encourage them to show love to one another. I discovered last year a wonderful book by Deloris Jordan. Did I Tell You I Love You Today? points out the myriad (and often overlooked) ways mothers love their children. We will come back to this book throughout the next two weeks as we practice noticing signs of love in our own home.

About two weeks before Valentine’s Day I cut out red construction paper hearts and hole punch them. I add a short piece of yarn to each one and leave them in a box beside my feather tree in a central location. When I (or my husband) see one of my children behave lovingly toward someone, I fill out a heart and hang it on the tree. For dinner on Valentine’s Day, the children and I prepare a large tea party. Just before the dessert course, my husband takes the hearts off the tree and reads them all aloud. The kids LOVE this, they sit a little taller and grin the whole time Dad is reading. It encourages all of us to know that our acts of kindness are not completely unseen.

For our devotions during this season we read “love stories” from the Bible. This year we will read:

1. Abraham chooses peace with his kinsman Lot, he allows Lot to choose his portion of land first(Genesis 13:1-12)
2. Abraham saves Lot, at great risk to himself (Genesis 14:8-16, the rest of the chapter is an example of keeping a promise)
3. Joseph loving his family (forgiving them) (Genesis 50)
4. Obadiah saves 100 prophets of the Lord, hides them and feeds them, during the persecution by Jezebel and Ahab (1 Kings 18:3,4)
5. Return of the Prodigal (Luke 15:11-32)
6. The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
7. Jonathan saves David's life (1 Samuel 20:1-42)
8. David keeps his promise to care for Jonathan's family after Jonathan's death (2 Samuel 9:1-7)
9. Roman centurion humbles himself to seek out Jesus and ask Him to heal his servant (Luke 7:2-6)
10. Moses' mother saved his life (Exodus 2)
11. Hannah cares for Samuel's needs even though he is far away (1 Samuel 2:19)
12. The true mother chose to protect her child even if that meant she was torn from him (1 Kings 3:22-28)
13. Esau loving Jacob (forgiving and welcoming him home) (Genesis 33:1-16)
14. John 15:1-17

I'd better go cut out those hearts...