February, the month that Valentine’s Day appears, a time for all of us to tell that special lady or man what they mean to us. February for myself finds me preparing for another wedding anniversary that numerically started a longtime ago, yet seems like yesterday. God has brought love into this world to be shared and when one is in love doesn’t it seem time stands still? When someone loves another, time becomes a slow clock, until you look back and realize everything you have shared with that special person must come to an end someday. Love is like that, blindly leading us on, until one comes to the certainty that they are getting older and hopefully wiser. I believe God granted us love so that no matter where we give it the returns are tenfold and the time we have love seems endless.
So where am I going with these seemingly rambling statements? Spring is coming soon and with it a renewed sense of “the love of life.” Doesn’t it seem winter has been here forever yet spring and summer and autumn go by so fast? I am talking about loving yourself as much as loving another. February and Valentine’s Day are a reminder that love is all around us and there for the taking and giving. We cannot love another without knowing how to love and therefore we must love ourselves first. Not a selfish love but a love for who we are and what we can give this world. God gives us love so that we can give love to others. Love makes the time on this earth seem short and long at the same time.
Married as long as I have been to my wonderful wife (I really mean that) has given me ample opportunity to learn love in many ways. From doing small chores for her, to comforting her in the hard times, to just listening. I was not born to live in love, that I believe is a learned experience, I was born to love and then receive God’s love in return. Married or single we all have someone who wants our love and it is up to us to give it freely. When we are without love it is winter in our lives and when we give our love it is the eternal spring, summer, and autumn of our lives. Has it been that long? No not really when one takes account of all the great and loving times of one’s life. Happy Valentine’s Day, another reminder that God gave us love to receive and give away so that we may be closer to Him.
