A VALENTINE'S DAY CHALLENGE

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A VALENTINE’S DAY LOVE CHALLENGE

Happy Saint Valentine’s Day! I’m sure many of you will be doted upon with flowers, cards, candy, and special mementos in celebration of Valentine’s Day. Social Media accounts will be flooded with #thankyou, #valentinesday, and #valentinesgift hashtags, along with filtered pictures of gifts received from loved ones or special friends. It’s a day of consumerism gone wild! A Black Friday without the stampedes and filled with red hearts.

Show Them the Love

I recently wrote about the big business of Valentine’s Day in my February newsletter. Here’s a short recap: Prosper Insights & Analytics surveyed and found that in the US, we will spend approximately $19.6 billion on Valentine’s Day this year. In one day, Americans will spend over $19 billion to show their love to spouses, children, family, and friends. That’s a whole lotta love!

I think to myself, what would the world look like if we took ten percent of the money spent on this one holiday and gave it to someone who really needs the love? The number one commandment is to love one another as He has loved us. We are shown unconditional love, and we are to love others with the same unconditional love. It doesn’t need to be shown with candy, cards, or Cupids; it only needs to be an act of love or spoken words of love. Sounds easy enough!

The World Needs Love Letters

Hannah Brencher’s understanding of love inspired her to write love letters to strangers. This selfless act of love became a global initiative, The World Needs More Love Letters. Through her letters, Hannah gave many individuals a reason to feel love and to share the love. She refers to herself as a storyteller and reminds us of the importance of a handwritten letter. I call her a relationship builder. A builder of people who took a simple act and made the world a better place by taking the time to send a letter of affirmation to strangers.

Hannah addresses the issues of social media and the temptation for individuals to pour out their frustration and pain on a screen, “where everything is paperless, and conversations take place on a screen where we diary our pain on Facebook.”

I agree with Hannah, the world needs more love letters. More importantly, we need to pour out our hearts to God.

“Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” John 13:34-35 (MSG)

Valentine’s Day Challenge for You

I challenge you this Valentine’s Day to show your appreciation to someone who needs love or affirmation. Someone who may be alone. A soul who needs to feel appreciated. You may reach out with a handwritten card, a handwritten letter, or a simple smile followed by “how are you?” Let’s increase the joy in the world this one day or week. Perhaps spreading love to others will become a daily routine and increase your joy and that of those around you.

When we live in joy, our hearts grow, and as our hearts grow, there is little room for depression, pity, or bitterness. Let’s soften our hearts on February 14^th and show love.

I’d love to hear back from you. Would you comment below or write to me and share how you showed someone who needed love that they are loved?

The Way of Love

1 Corinthians 13: 1-7 (MSG)

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,