It's Over...

It's over.  Valentine's Day 2010 has come and gone.  For some it was extra painful this year with one full day at work/school to celebrate the Hallmark holiday and a whole weekend of chocolate covered mushiness.  But alas, it has come to an end.  Breathe deeply my friends.  We made it.

I have to confess a little something here.  I LOVE Valentine's Day.  Now, that is.  For years, it didn't matter what I did or how the rest of the year looked, I could never manage to have a Valentine on V-day.  Being a single woman on V-day is rotten.  I wanted that ooey gooey mushy madness too and I swear...if one more friend at school or co-worker got flowers, I was going to grab some scissors and go Edward Scissorhands on them.  I know those feelings because I've been there.  But in 2001, all of that changed.  That was my first V-day with hubs and I've had special Valentine's every year since.  So of course, now I love it...sorta.

It's over commercialized.  Yup...totally.  It's expensive and everyone feels stressed and over pressured to find gifts.  Check.  If you're like me and have a tricky guy to buy for, it's hard to sift through the vast array of corny and cheese ball gift ideas in hopes of finding one that says "I love you more than life itself...we just don't have the money to spend a fortune to prove it."  I mean really, how many golf certificates can one guy get?  (Little bit of a personal joke there.)  And mostly, shouldn't we be celebrating the ones we love every day?  Maybe not in over zealous spending on things that die and make us fat, but in going the extra mile in our marriage or relationship.  And shouldn't "I love you" day be for everyone and not just couples?  Shouldn't we send our girlfriends cards telling them how much we love them?  What about our parents or grandparents?  And shouldn't we do that, literally, from the heart, not just because Hallmark (who I love by the way) tells us this is the day to do it?

1 Corinthians 13 is one of my all time favorite scriptures because it so clearly defines love for me.  And...it's beautifully written which speaks to my poetess heart.  But what about John 3:16, where we learn that God loved us so much that Jesus was given to us and chose to die for us so that we might live?  I was in Cokesbury the other day looking at Lenten resources when my friend pointed out this trinket, a nail, on a little card.  The card said something to the affect that it wasn't the nails that held Jesus to the cross, it was his love for us.  I'd never really thought quite that poignantly about it and it struck a cord in me.  I knew Jesus' love for us is why he endured what he did, but I guess that this day, I needed to hear it differently.  We think the nails held him up there, but that was love.

Love takes a multitude of shapes.  It can be romantic love, brotherly/sisterly love, love of a parent or a child, love of a friend, love of neighbor, love of God and love of a Savior.  No matter what Valentine's Day means to you, challenge yourself to think of the bigger implications of what LOVE means for all of us in our everyday lives.  And don't forget to love yourself..."love your neighbor as yourself" isn't a part of one of the greatest directives for no reason...but in order to truly love the others in our lives, we must know what it means to love ourselves.  But in this beautiful and mysterious power that is God, if we focus on loving others, we find that we discover what there is to love about ourselves.  Either way you go, as long as your loving, your living.  So love someone.

I KNOW my Redeemer Lives!!!

There is something I have to share with you. It is one of the most loving, inclusive and awe-inspiring things I have ever seen. Grab your tissues...you're going to need them. This, my friends, is what LOVE is. This is Christ's LOVE in action. This is the length a great father will go for his child. This is the length our Father has gone for us. May you be blessed by this and share it with others so that they too can see with their own eyes what LOVE really means.

TEAM HOYT
Visit www.teamhoyt.com for more information and photos. The brief synopsis/lead below is from their website and written by David Tereshchuk.



Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.

For the past twenty five years or more Dick, who is 65, has pushed and pulled his son across the country and over hundreds of finish lines. When Dick runs, Rick is in a wheelchair that Dick is pushing. When Dick cycles, Rick is in the seat-pod from his wheelchair, attached to the front of the bike. When Dick swims, Rick is in a small but heavy, firmly stabilized boat being pulled by Dick.

Now watch the video:

The Love Dare

This past Friday was a great evening for me. Hubs came back from Houston on Wednesday evening and for the first time in well over a year, we were able to go out on a 'date night'. Hubs took me to my favorite German restaurant and then we went out for a movie; we went to see Fireproof.

Let me preface this by telling you about Tuesday. On Tuesday, I went to a local Christian book store to pick up a Bible Commentary and a book on writing tools of Exegesis. Yeah, crazy weird word that no one has ever heard of unless you pursue a degree of some sort in religious or theological studies. Anyway, I'm a window shopper. This store is one of my favorites as it has some of the most beautiful Christian decorations in it and my heart always feels warm when I leave. Well, as I was walk back towards the books I made sure I swung past the decorations and gifts. On my way, I stopped suddenly at a display for the movie Fireproof - the new Christian movie in theatres. There were several things at the display: trinkets, jewelry, the book for the movie and then there was this plain and mysterious brown book. I picked it up, looked at it briefly, put it back and walked away. Strangely, I was pulled back to the display and back to that book. I picked it up again and opened it reading a bit on the inside. It was called The Love Dare and was about marriage, strengthening your love relationship with your partner and doing it in a Christ centered way. Interesting. But, I put it back. As I started to walk away again, it was as if I hit this solid pane of glass and couldn't move any further. I stopped, left my cart, went back, grabbed the book and threw it in my cart.

When I got home, I looked at it a little further and as God always does, it was a message I needed to hear and God was getting through to me. The Love Dare is a 40 day challenge to improve your marriage, even if it is going strong. It focus's on love, patience, kindness, selflessness...and much more. The book was a main focus of the movie Fireproof, and having not seen the movie, I was without that extra content, but just the same, I knew I needed this book. You see, the further I grow in faith, the more I'm challenged, the hotter the fire gets and the more resistance the world gives me. Many of the people who I consider my spiritual advisers or sounding boards have told me this would happen and to keep going. I never knew it would attack my marriage...but it has. I love my hubs dearly, but we're human, we're flawed, and things haven't been easy lately for many reasons. It's just been hard; brutally hard and we've been failing each other. It's of course, in these times that the horrid "D" word gets tossed around and your marriage, not to mention your heart is nothing less then broken.

On Thursday night, I sat down with hubs and showed him the book and we talked about it and decided we would do it together. Though we read at night, we read for the next day, so we started day 1 of 40 on Friday. Friday night, we went to see Fireproof and it all came alive to both of us. Couples of all ages and stages packed the tiny theatre until there were no seats left and by the end of the film, everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE was in tears. This movie is the real deal. All pastors should sponsor a night out to this movie or once released, sponsor a night in at the church to show this movie to couples. The main character is a fire chief and he talks about how in a fire, you are to never leave your partner. The rest of movie goes on to show that is true in your marriage also. That when the heat is on and the fire is raging, you NEVER leave your partner. That's when it gets dangerous. I'm not sure what the future will bring. What I am sure is that we have nothing to loose by give not just love but God a chance in our marriage. I have prayed for months that God would come into my marriage and move mountains. I now know God has heard my cries. We are on day 3 and so far, so good.

If there is anything I can ask today, it is that you find your way to this book The Love Dare and you find your way to this movie, Fireproof. Even if your marriage is on the last thread and divorce seems imminent, please try one last thing. If hubs and I have nothing to loose, then neither do you. And if your marriage is going strong and good times are here for you, don't think you can't benefit from this too...because challenges are just around the corner. Fireproof yourselves now, before it gets too hot.

God bless all of you and your marriages. If your heart is breaking, know that God is always with you and you are never alone. And divorce doesn't mean God stops loving you. It doesn't mean you're loved any less or that you're lesser of a person. You are just as important as the person next to you. We are to love God first and then our neighbor as ourselves. But remember, in order to love our neighbors as ourselves, we must first know what it means to love ourselves and we learn that from truly, deeply, unequivocally loving God.

If you've seen the movie, read the book, are doing the Love Dare, or have any other insight, please share them with me and the readers who follow. We would be blessed by your thoughts.