{"id":13154,"date":"2017-02-14T07:38:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-14T12:38:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=13154"},"modified":"2017-02-14T09:10:16","modified_gmt":"2017-02-14T14:10:16","slug":"valentines-day-making-it-ours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/?p=13154","title":{"rendered":"Valentine’s Day – Making It Ours"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

[Adapted from the Archives]<\/p>\n

Valentine\u2019s Day, as a holiday, is ripe with all sorts of possibilities\u2026 <\/strong>and potential frustrations. It\u2019s a day that picks at our contentment and whispers in our ears, \u201cIs this enough? this love I have? these loves I have?\u201d I\u00a0say we take this holiday, turn it on its head,\u00a0and totally own it.<\/p>\n

What do you love about Valentine\u2019s Day? Most probably, you are women reading this blog, because men seriously don\u2019t want any more information on how to celebrate this day. We women have this totally lovely day thrust upon us once a year to do with it\u00a0how we want. ..so let\u2019s get\u00a0after it.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I love about this day:<\/p>\n

1) I can be as effusive and gushy as I want on this one day of the year.<\/strong> It\u2019s allowed\u2026tolerated\u2026appreciated even. Cards, phone calls, and social media shouting out to those we love\u2026there\u2019s a lot of relational muscle pumped on this day\u2026wouldn\u2019t hurt to keep this going through the rest of the year. Words. Are. Powerful.\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

2) It\u2019s a golden\u00a0opportunity to hang with our best buddies.<\/strong> Not just husbands or boyfriends, but moms, grandmoms, the widow neighbor down the street. Those glorious women in our lives\u2026 Valentine\u2019s Day is a fine excuse to have lunch together, cake<\/a> together, movie night together. Whatever. How thankful I am for the great women in my life\u2026from lots of places in the world.\"Blog<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"2014<\/a><\/p>\n

3) This day lends itself to\u00a0a total indulgence (guilt deferred) of sugary\u00a0delights. <\/strong>Valentine\u2019s Day blesses all excesses. I don’t eat chocolate these days, but Hershey’s Kisses still speak. Whether I eat those foil-wrapped happy little candies or not, they still generate\u00a0lovely thoughts for me on this day…as do the other treats that come out especially on this day of the year.\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

\"2013<\/a><\/p>\n

4) I love how cheery people are toward each other related to Valentine\u2019s Day\u00a0(kind of back to the gushy\/effusive side of this day).<\/strong> Whether it\u2019s decorating a colleague\u2019s cubicle wall or lavishing gifts on your child\u2019s teacher\u2026it can make for a sweet day. Whether there\u2019s a dear man in our lives or not, we can use this day to bless others\u2026just for the fun of it (for them AND for us).\"Blog<\/a>Photo Credit: Cublical Decorating \u2013 Heather Teater\"2013<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/a>5) Last thing I love about Valentine\u2019s Day is its celebration of love itself. <\/strong>The history of Valentine\u2019s Day<\/a> is far from the romance and roses we expect today. Yet, if there is something worthy of setting aside a day, it is love \u2013 real, deep, sacrificial and satisfying\u00a0love. Maybe it\u2019s a stretch to consider that sort of love on a day that\u2019s been riddled with commercialism, but that\u2019s where I would like to end.\u00a0Today, more than anything I celebrate the God of love who teaches us best how to love. First loving Him and\u00a0then, because of Him, loving each other as we love ourselves. \"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

Jesus said to him, \u201c\u2018You shall love the Lord<\/span> your God with all your heart<\/strong>, with all your soul, and with all your mind.\u2019 <\/span>This is the<\/i> first and great commandment.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>And the<\/i> second is<\/i> like it: \u2018You shall love your neighbor as yourself<\/strong>.\u201d \u2013 Matthew 22:37-39<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Love suffers long and<\/i> is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.<\/span>\u00a0<\/sup>Love never fails. \u2013 1 Corinthians 13:4-<\/span>8<\/p>\n

Happy Valentine\u2019s Day, Friends.\"Blog<\/a><\/p>\n

The Single Way to do Valentine’s Day<\/em> – Mandisa<\/a><\/p>\n

A Tribute to Charlotte Ray<\/em> – Cal Thomas<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Adapted from the Archives] Valentine\u2019s Day, as a holiday, is ripe with all sorts of possibilities\u2026 and potential frustrations. It\u2019s a day that picks at our contentment and whispers in our ears, \u201cIs this enough? this love I have? these loves I have?\u201d I\u00a0say we take this holiday, turn it on its head,\u00a0and totally own … Continue reading Valentine’s Day – Making It Ours<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[810,2126,1241,249,50,825,18,795,2611,761,789,1456,735],"tags":[4280,4258,239,1835,211,2557,1009,1015],"class_list":["post-13154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-good-gifts","category-community","category-contentment","category-food-drink","category-god","category-holidays","category-jesus","category-love-2","category-love-your-neighbor","category-redeeming-restoring","category-relationships","category-steadfast-love","category-words","tag-cal-thomas","tag-chocolate","tag-friends","tag-jesus","tag-love","tag-mandisa","tag-valentines-day","tag-words"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pauPAB-3qa","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13154"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13164,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13154\/revisions\/13164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debmillswriter.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}