Valentines Day is the second largest day for greeting card purchases (Christmas being number one). Flowers, candy, and hand-written notes of affection are exchanged literally in the billions today. Though its history is somewhat vague, It is the day where even music stations will play your favorite "silly little love songs" (Manilow fans--this is your moment).
I'm a romantic at heart (like Rush, I'm just a lovable little fuzz-ball :-) ). And though I'm not a huge fan of this day, I'm not a total kill-joy either. It is sweet to get a card or note from someone you care about. But personaly, you can keep the Hallmark cards, chocolates, and the flowers - but oh, give me "the power of the bean." I'm an avid coffee drinker--so a great Valentines Day "card" for me would be getting a Starbucks card or a cup of my most desired Joe at my favorite coffee café, The Good Cup, enjoying its robust savory delights with a dear friend. As Anne (the owner of The Good Cup) is fond of saying, "there's no place like foam." I also I really like this blogger's strategery on the whole Valentine Day thing.
Currently, it is 20 degrees outside; lightly snowing, the wind is blowing pretty strong; and Nashville drivers will be getting into more accidents than is humanly possible. So, if you were all visiting me in Nashville this morning, we would be at The Good Cup, enjoying some amazing coffee, stirring-erudite-lucid-witty-meaningful converssation, some old school jazz or the great singer/sonwriter classics of the '60's and '70's would be playing in the background, and we would be thanking the Lord for another day to love and serve Him and each other.
So, because you can't be in Nashville with me today, here is my Valentine card to y'all (and don't forget to: "shower the people you love, with love" - sorry I couldn't resist).
This picture to the left was sent in by a fellow blogger as my V-Day card--I loved it! The scary thing is, I used to kind of look like this as a kid. It's me doing "Opie Taylor" freckles and all. Another one of my friends told me that today should be called, "Single Awareness Day" - which the acronym spells SAD. :-(. Well, let's change that. To all the "singles" out there today--celebrate your station in life! If no one has given you any V-Day goodies, treat yourself to some Haagen Dazs Blackberry Chip; a small piece of fine dark chocolate; AND don't forget, a venti size of your favorite roast of Joe. Enjoy.
-what Hallmark won't tell you today-
1Cor. 13:1 ¶ If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Cor. 13:2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
1Cor. 13:3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
1Cor. 13:4 ¶ Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
1Cor. 13:5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
1Cor. 13:6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
1Cor. 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Cor. 13:8 ¶ Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
1Cor. 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
1Cor. 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
1Cor. 13:11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
1Cor. 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
1Cor. 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
7 comments:
I found this for a good cheer:
Coffee In Heaven
You'll be greeted
by a nice cup of coffee
when you get to heaven
and strains of angelic harmony.
But wouldn't you be devastated
if they only serve decaffeinated
while from the percolators of hell
your soul was assaulted
by Satan's fresh espresso smell?
-- John Agard
Happy Valentine's Day
(it is freezing here, too)
I'm a HUGE fan of February 15th. All those boxed chocolates are 50-75% off. I love February 15th. :-)
Happy Coffee Day.
I get to go shovel the driveway now. Nope, never a dull moment!
But before I shovel...
I've cleared up the fuzzy history of this day, over yonder at my blog.
:-)
Steve...nice!...
20 degrees? ouch...50 up here in Seattle...but in a couple of days I am off to Disney World...woo hoo...
So I will be drinking some iced coffees instead of the usual gallon I pour down my face of hot java every day.
Long live Starbucks!!!
Nice thoughts. I like V-Day but it stays very low key for me.
"Love ... rejoices in the truth". This is the first thing I think of when I read this magnificient portion of Scripture.
In Baltimore we have ice and freezing rain.
But what about in New York Sate where they have 12 feet of snow!!!
Romantic love is so much different from 1 Corinthians 13 Biblical love, isn’t it?
About 2 years after I was saved, I recall sitting down to read my Bible and study and pray. I remember opening up to 1 Corinthians 13 and debating about whether I should just skip over those verses about love for now, because “after all, everyone knows what love is, right?” I wanted to learn about the “weightier things of God”.
And then it came to me that love was the *one* thing that I actually knew so *little* about. And that if I didn’t begin learning what Biblical love was, I really wouldn’t be able to understand the “weightier things of God” with the proper perspective.
I must say that since I began making my focus understanding Biblical love and how it is supposed to be practiced by believers, the Word of God really did become more meaningful and more powerful in my life.
I quickly came to see that learning, meditating upon, and putting into practice Biblical love, and trying to know the God Who *is* Love, *were* the “weightier things of God”. And that was what I needed to know first and foremost.
Without love, we are nothing...a clanging cymbal. When the Preacher preaches, or the teacher teaches, or the Christian witnesses to the unbeliever, if it is not done in love, though the message itself may be powerful, the messenger is “nothing”, according to 1 Corinthians 13.
Romantic love is a wonderful thing but without Biblical love, it may eventually leave the heart empty.
I just have to throw in a hearty AMEN to this post. I'd rather have meekness show up at my doorstep than a pressed shirt and a box of chocolates any day (not just on Feb 14th).
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