Hope From St. Valentine

It's Valentine's Day. Around this time I tend to notice a certain disdain about VD from people... wait...what? HA HA!

Sorry, I'm a little punchy from not having slept well. My 11 year old little boy, who was born with a significant chromosome abnormality, had the stomach flu last night after already going through a month or two of sinus infections and colds. It's quite an adventure when he gets the flu. He has no idea what is going on with him and has absolutely no ability to hit the toilette or let us know he is throwing up!

My almost (in three days!) 14 year old daughter has caught some of the Valentine's Day cynicism I mentioned at the start. "I HATE Valentines Day" she told me.  Then she mentioned all the reasons why she didn't like it. I agreed with her 100% The things that are meant to paint a certain stereotype and sell flowers and cards and such really isn't what Love is about at all.

I DID have to laugh, however, at her good joke of asking me if she and her good friend (who happens to be a boy) could go see the movie "50 Shades of Grey" this weekend!
"OH HELL NO" was my response and we both got a great chuckle. I think my young teen has a pretty good handle on not buying into the CRAP that society keeps trying to throw at her about what "love" is.
I'm proud of her for that!

My husband and I usually don't do anything for Valentine's Day. Flowers are always way more expensive than they normally are and it's probably the worst night of the year (other than New Years Eve) to get good service if you'd like to dine out. We just don't really get into it. If people enjoy that sort of thing... more power to them. This is not about making people feel bad if they really enjoy all the hype and "romance" and such.

I guess I just feel that  having a day to perhaps think a little more about LOVE, isn't such a bad idea. Before I wrote this I thought I'd check out who the heck this Valentine guy was anyway. Here is my brief finding.

"The first St. Valentine was a priest and physician in Rome. He along with St. Marius and his family comforted the martyrs during the persecution of Emperor Claudius II, the Goth. Eventually, St. Valentine was also arrested, condemned to death for his faith, beaten with clubs, and finally beheaded on Feb. 14, AD 270."
Pretty DANG romantic isn't it!??? Uhhhhh, no.
But I DO see a lot of LOVE in-between the lines of this statement.

He comforted Martyrs.
Yeah, those are the people who actually believed that a Jesus dude existed, died, and conquered death and that he was all about Love and feeding the hungry and putting self-righteous pharisees in their place and healing the sick and standing up for the oppressed and being associated with the "scandalous" of society and washing people's feet and talking about a Kingdom where all of that is the NORM!

Those people were truly hated, hurt and killed by the "Powers-That-Were" in their day. Not to be confused with the "so-called" Martyrs of today... Who think because they can't discriminate against others, or because people think it's wrong to try to turn public schools into "Christian" schools, or people disagree with their religion (which is actually more their politics) that they are "suffering for Jesus".
Eeesh, don't get me started.

Then there's the part about St. Valentine being condemned to death, beaten with clubs and beheaded! YIKES!!  There is a verse of scripture that talks about there being "NO GREATER LOVE" than to lay down your life for another. Now THAT is REAL love. You see that sort of love all over if you look for it! It doesn't even have to be that drastic!

It may be in taking care of your sick child.
Being that "ear" to a friend who just needs to vent.
Giving someone another chance in a troubled relationship.
An encouraging word to someone who may need it.
Being excited for something wonderful that has happened to another.
Letting someone know you're thinking of them.
Helping out your sister by coming to her son's IEP meeting.
The list is endless....

We had my son's IEP meeting at school yesterday. (It's a special meeting to plan out his education). My husband told me afterward that the biggest thing that impressed him was how thankful he is that our boy has such neat friends at school. He really does! These kids step out of their world and meet Noah right where he's at!

One of his friends made him the sweetest Valentine!  She made this lovely acronym of his name! You can tell she knows our boy pretty well.
Heart... melted.

That gives me Hope.
LOVE... gives me Hope.
So...
Hey! 
HAPPY VALENTINES DAY MY FRIENDS!!!