Happy Valentine's Day

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends... SO now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love
1 Corinthians 13:4-8, 13

In this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
1John 4:10-11

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a good righteous person---though perhaps for a good person would dare even to die---but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us
Romans 5:6-8


As a single woman, who has been single pretty much all of her eligible dating years, Valentine's day has often brought with it feelings of frustration, loneliness, and not so pleasant thoughts about myself. And reading these Scriptures today convicts my heart about so many things. This day reveals the world's portrayal of love in a sad light for me. I see the world's love as selfish, empty, unsatisfied, proud, more of a lust thing than a love thing.
But we have truth, we have Scripture, we have a love that is real, that is sacrificing, that is so sweet and amazing that we hesitate to believe it and have a hard time trusting in it because it is too good to be true. Now I realize that i have little room to talk because i am not married and have not had the chance to encounter sacrifice for another as intimately as you married people do on i am sure a daily basis. And i will admit that i have done little sacrificing for love of my Lord, or of the people he has put in my path.
But my heart soars with the possibility of it, because i am struck with the richness of a love that makes someone willing to die for another (more Christ style than say romeo and juliet), especially a love that gives it all for the sake of those who ridiculed and mocked and sinned against Him.
All that to say I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's day that is filled with a love far richer and deeper than candy or flowers, not only a love received by you, but given by you (and me) as well.