Happy Valentines Day: I Give You My (Paper) Heart

Happy Valentines Day! Here are some simple, nontraditional ways to spread the love of God this Valentine’s Day.

By Lauren Heaton
14 February 2019

Happy Feast of St. Valentine! Regardless of your state in life, whether you’re singing All the Single Ladies or We are Family! here are a few simple ways you can show the love God has for each one of us on this holy holiday caught between its brutal roots and chocolate filled commercialism.

“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for a friend” (John 15:13).

If we darn millennials are entitled and Gen Z doesn’t know how to have relationships outside of their smart phones, then this verse should be our anthem! True Christian love is sacrificial love, dying to self, and choosing the good of the other person over the good of oneself. Consider the following ways that go beyond flowers and chocolate that you can practice this Valentines Day:

1. Do little things with great love today! Go out of your way to make someone else’s day better. Clean the kitchen for your roommates, surprise your co-worker by helping with a task, smile! It is amazing how the little things ad up.
2. Invite your friends over tonight! If you’re like me you fear rejection especially when it comes to inviting people to events and having them turn me down. Well, this is a great way to die to self. Put yourself out there and invite people over tonight. No one really wants to spend this holiday alone and you can be the person to provide the community we all long for. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate party. Keep it simple.
3. Go to the store tomorrow and buy some cake mixes, whatever other Valentine’s-theme food is on sale and take it to your local food pantry.
4. Pick up the phone and CALL. Scary right? An actual conversation. Think of the people who might be alone this Valentine’s day and give them a ring (Not that kind of ring!). If you’re feeling really brave, call and leave a singing telegram voicemail. That will bring a smile to their face.

“We Love because HE loved us first” (1 John 4:19, emphasis added)

And finally take time to remember that the only reason we are able to love and desire so strongly to love others well is because of the love of God that we are created in. God is love and he gives us his love to share with those around us. Spend time in an adoration chapel today, or reflect on 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.

“Love is patient, love is kind…”Instead of viewing this verse with perhaps a jaded lens of “I don’t love in that way, that way or that way” consider that if God is love, then this is like his best friend telling you what He is like. It’s like the moment in a chick-flick where the girl is gushing to her girlfriends about how great this new guy is. How’s that for a Valentine’s Day twist on Lectio Divina?

God Bless you this St. Valentine’s day!