Challenged To The Core - Kathi Brixey

It is that time of year when romance is in the air. Can you feel it? I know you can see it. It is everywhere, the markets, department stores, on billboards, drug stores; I even saw an ad at a gas station. The media is crazy with ads for flowers, candy, perfume, and especially jewelry. If you didn’t know better you would think that these are the only ways to say I love you! A recent ad from a card company tells us to, “Say it with a musical card.” Now that’s clever, you can evoke a memory of when you use to talk to each other with just a few lines of a song and never have to say a word. Hmmm, what’s wrong with that picture? I know that all this is supposed to help us express our love for each other, but what happened to being real? We don’t live in a “soap” opera or a “romance novel” we live in the here and now. Please don’t get me wrong, I love to get presents, cards and flowers as much as the next girl, maybe even more, however, the things that speak volumes to me are far greater than tangible gifts, they are the everyday things that Del does for me just because. In 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 it tells us what love “is not” and what love “is”. Have you ever just read it aloud and thought about each individual phrase, one at a time? If we practiced and applied each of those steps to our relationships our marriages would blossom, our friendships would grow deeper, and overall people would just get along better.

I’m sure by now you think I’m living in a fairytale. Not really, I’m just optimistic. Granted I can’t change the world, but with God’s help I can change my world. I can make the effort to incorporate the scriptures into who I am with God’s guidance. He can help me practice and implement them so that they become a part of who I am, the way I respond to others as well as just showing God’s love to those around me. I tried an experiment once in the grocery store. I determined to say “hello” to everyone that I could make eye contact with and to look for ways to help others find what they were looking for. Wow, people were blown away by the thoughtfulness and the effort to help them. Comments ranged from “thank you”, to “you’re so kind”, to “people just don’t try to help each other anymore”. This made me think about how I treated my husband and family, and I came to the conclusion that I needed to make a better effort where they were concerned, they needed to know that I thought of them as my Valentine’s every day.

Valentine’s Day shouldn’t be just once a year, it should be every day of the year. Think about it, if we were to try and do for each other every day like we do on Valentine’s Day, wow, there would be a lot of really happy people! Sometimes when we are tired it’s not easy to continue to do for others. However, when they know that you love them it makes it easier for them to do for you. There becomes a goal of working together to be all that God wants us to be. Our families will look different, our children will grow into loving adults, and there is security and peace in knowing that we are loved by each other and by God.

This week as you go about getting ready for Valentine’s day “check your pulse,” are you showing your loved ones how much you love them today or every day? It’s not how much you spend on them its how you invest in them that screams “I love you.”