Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!!!! Yes, as a single girl, I can still say that Valentine's Day is happy :) I would challenge you to reframe V-Day to be a celebration of more than just romantic love. We love our family and our friends, and most importantly, God loves us. Those are all loves worth celebrating!

Where Does Love Begin
The Bible says that God is love. That little word, "is", means that love cannot be defined apart from God. All love stems from Him and must be measured against His perfect love. Any love we experience here on earth, apart from His own love for us, will fall short. That doesn't mean it's not still wonderful! Just that it cannot compare to God's love. The books of 1-3 John are treatise on God's love. If you are interested, I know this would be an excellent resource for you to study that more. I personally have not used it but I know this woman's work and everything she does is fantastic so I am confident in recommending it even though I have not personally done it. (I don't get anything for recommending it either).

What Is Love?
In English, we say we love everything from pizza to our spouses. Obviously, those are very different kinds of love. We don't really even "love" pizza or other things like that. We actually like them. Really, really like them, maybe, but still like them. The Greeks had four words for four different kinds of love.

• STORGE (store-ge) - family love & affection; also love of country or a sports team
  
• PHILIA (fee-lee-uh) - friendship; brotherly love; loyalty to friends, family, & community
  
• EROS (air-os) - romantic, passionate love as between a married couple
  
• AGAPE (ah-gah-pay) - love of God for man & man for God; love between parents & children.
  

That's a lot of variation and complexity that we cram into one word - love.

Love In The Bible
In the Bible, we see that God loves His people with an "unfailing love". We hear people describing their love for God, His law, and His temple. We see that we can warp love to loving evil and wickedness but we are supposed to love what God loves (justice, righteousness, holiness, truth, & peace). We see great friendship love displayed between David & Jonathan and we see Paul's selfless love for the Church. We also learn that love is a Fruit of the Spirit, so we grow in love as the Holy Spirit works in us.

I did a lesson last year on love in the Bible and I have over 40 references that I selected. Those were just what I selected as being the best to get my points across! Love is on every page of the Bible, from beginning to end, because God is love.


So you see, Valentine's Day is about so much more than having a significant other to buy you gifts. It's much bigger than romance. There is nothing wrong with those things, but they should not be the focus. Do you even know why this holiday is called "Valentine's" Day? Do you know who St. Valentine was? If you want to learn more and give more meaning to your celebration of Valentine's Day, this freebie is for you! It's done by the same woman who did the 1-3 John study so, again, I know it's a great, useful resource for you.

Happy Valentine's Day!!! How are you celebrating this year?



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Photo by Birgith Roosipuu on Unsplash