St Valentine

For the longest time, Valentine's Day was just a holiday where my fellow classmates and I made (sometimes outrageous) boxes and exchanged cards. Being a child who didn't celebrate Halloween, Valentine's was the next best thing, for with the cards came candy! Oh yeah, candy: the currency of an elementary world. 

found on Pinterest

When I got older, the cards still came, but the holiday had changed...their were couples involved now. Girlfriends getting flowers and large stuffed bears in their lockers. Couples in the hall kissing...

by the way, what's up with that? Don't people have any decency?

ANYWAY...Valentine's Day had almost become discouraging. A single girl surrounded by couples. Of course, my single girlfriends and I were each others Valentine's or we held an Anti-Valentine's Day party. Everyone claimed that the holiday was made by the card companies for them to make big bucks. 

Then one day I heard the most wonderful thing...who St. Valentine really was! It was an Adventures in Odyssey adventure. 

Side note: I LOVE Adventures in Odyssey!!! :D 

Back to Valentine...

Back in the day (the 3rd century AD), when Claudius the Second was Emperor of Rome, he made a silly decree. He forbade the men in his army to marry or become engaged. Obviously, these poor men weren't too happy about this. Enter Valentine! He was a Christian and, following God, decided to marry young couples. When he was discovered, he was imprisoned. The legend goes on to say that Valentine's jailor had a blind daughter. Valentine, with God's help, healed the girl of her blindness. The jailor tried to intercede and get Valentine out of prison, but to no avail. Valentine was beheaded on February 14th. Before he was, he had written a short note to the jailor's daughter saying,

 

"With love, from your Valentine"

How beautiful is that? The man was willing to serve God in the capacity that was needed. He preformed weddings, marriage being a gift from God between a man and a woman. Beautiful. 

I have a boyfriend, who, very sweetly, asked me to be his valentine, this year. But I will always remember my first and greatest Valentine, Jesus Christ! The one man who willingly left his throne to die for a worthless sinner like me! How great a God we serve! And how much He loves us! 

Happy Valentine's Day!