Valentine's Day or Singles Awareness Day?
Hi dolls and gents, are you excited for Valentine’s Day or are you dreading it? As a child my mom would give us a card and candy for almost every Hallmark holiday. Valentine’s was always fun in elementary school because the entire class would participate in a card and candy exchange. I would come home with a box full of goodies. However, as we become older around this is day of love we either feel loved or excluded. In middle and high school we hold our breath hoping our crush would surprise us with a love note or teddy bear. This never happened for me so I didn’t typically care for this day. My mom still gave me gifts but she was my mom, in my mind she did this because she was my mom. That’s what moms do. I wanted to be loved and wanted by someone who wasn’t in my family, I wanted to hold hands with my crush with my teddy bear on the other hand walking to class like all the other girls at my school.
In my adult years I renamed this day “Singles Awareness Day” because I never felt more alone/single than on this day. Everyone has dinner plans and posting their pictures online while I’m at home having server FOMO. When I met my husband I was so excited because finally I wouldn't be alone and now I’ll have pictures to post. WRONG!! My husband is the complete opposite, he could care less about Valentine’s Day plus he wouldn’t be caught dead in a crowded place. In our early years I made a big fuss about him not taking me out and showering me with gifts. He said to me; “why do I have to go all out on one day to show that I love you, when I love you every day? That’s fake Tiph.” To myself I responded “yeah you kinda have a point.” It’s crazy how a holiday that’s “supposed” to make you feel loved can make you feel like you’re not enough, lacking or that there is something wrong with you because you’re sitting at home alone on the couch watching the Hallmark channel eating Ben & Jerry’s.
May I encourage you as I continue to encourage myself to allow Jesus to be your Valentine, He loves us so much and we don’t have to earn it. Open your heart and receive his love that is patient, kind, slow to anger, keeps no records of wrong and that is unfailing. His love covers all offenses. (1 Corinthians 13:4-6) When you hear the enemy saying you’re unlovable or unwanted fire back with God’s truth. I know John 3:16 has been used over and over again so we kind of just read it and keep going however, God gave me new revelation over this verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only, unique Son as a gift. So now everyone who believes in him will never perish but experience everlasting life. Jesus came from heaven which is perfect, absolutely perfect to a broken world to rescue us. He didn’t have to do that, but God didn’t want heaven without us so he sent his Son who is fully God and fully man to die and rise again for us. It makes me cry knowing that God loved you and me that much. Valentine’s Day is NOT the ultimate definition of love, it’s day the world made up, if you celebrate it cool, if you don’t cool. Do not allow this day to validate who you are because you’re already loved and chosen everyday of your life even if the world tells you otherwise. Thank God for your health, life, everything and everyone and you’ll see your heart shift from focusing on what you think you lack to gratitude. We have so much to be grateful for, secure you joy. xoxo