Mopey Valentine

I get excited when Valentine's comes around! Not because I receive chocolates, hearts, stuffed bears, or cards from an admiring fellow, but because I love talking about love.

Please be warned this is not another blog post about "loving yourself" or "waiting for love." This is a post about loving, love, and giving love unconditionally!

Now, if you're thinking about love as the Disney type or the romantic comedy, then you don't really love love. Why? Because you really don't understand love. You might understand an imitation, but this fraudulent love is not the same. Guess what? I don't understand true love, either, because to truly understand love would be to truly understand God, for He is love.

Did you grasp that? God is love!

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

I John 1:16

He must be a great lover because He loved us so greatly and passionately that while we were still haters of Him, the Holy Spirit pursued us! One of my favorite songs puts it pretty perfectly.

love I made it mine

I made it small I made it blind

I followed hard only to find

it wasn't love

it wasn't love

love of songs and pen

oh love of movie endings

takes out the break

leaves out the bend

misses love

love not of you 

love not of me

come hold us up

come set us free

not as we know it

but as it can be

love's reality 

is not a passing bravery

it holds out hope beyond what's seen

the hope of love

love not of you 

love not of me

come hold us up

come set us free

not as we know it

but as it can be

"Love not as we know it, but as it can be." Wow. If we got beyond paper hearts and candy and found out what it truly is, what would we find? I think it would be a lot of giving of ourselves -- opening our hearts and sharing the burdens of others, not for personal gain. Scripture identifies love.

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.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Instead of this sweetness of true love in the body of Christ, I see (and I'm sure you've noticed, too) what I call Mopey Valentines. These valentines mope, because they say that they want someone to love them, or that they aren't getting enough attention. The pleasing of self will never fulfill you, but so often we try. I fall into this. It's fun for a little while, but empty in the end.

So no moping allowed! 

Celebrate true love this year! Learn to love, love!

This week on Silk and Purple, we plan to do just that!