Love Is In the Air

What do you automatically think of when someone mentions the month February? Well of course…love. It’s the love month where boys and girls and men and women all display their love for someone. I remember my first exposure to Valentine’s Day in elementary school when the boys gave Valentine cards to the girls and the girls even gave cards to the boys. Back then it was a fun but silly holiday to me. 

Today, Feb 14^th Valentine’s Day, is still honored as a day to display our love for someone. Pink cards fill the racks at the stores and pink gifts are out. Boxes of chocolate in a pink heart box are still very popular and given often. My favorite today that stems from when I was kid is the colored candy hearts. I still buy them today. 

For your information, love did not start with Cupid and Valentine Day! God is love and He created love and demonstrated his love for us all through the Bible. So the Bible would be the only real source of what love is and how to display it to others. Valentine Day is fun and maybe a little silly at times, but God is our source for love. If you look up the word love in most study Bibles in the concordance, you will get pages and pages of scriptures that relate to love. 

As adults, there are a lot of ways we show our love to others. I am sure people still buy pink cards and heart shaped boxes full of chocolate but there are other ways to show your love to someone. Let’s look at another way to love, that we often don’t think about. Jesus says that we should speak the truth in all we say and do. Speaking the truth to a friend, a spouse, a friend, or whoever, says that you love them. In the Beatitudes (Matthew 5), Jesus spoke eight blessings on those who were there. He then went on to speak about issues they were facing and dealing with, however instead of blasting them for their wrong doing, he spoke the truth in love. After he had finished, he left the hillside and many followed him. That tells me he didn’t blast them and make then mad; instead, he spoke in a soft voice in love all the still correcting their behavior.

WOW! What a model for us to know how to speak the truth in love. What’s sad is seeing parents abusing their children, yelling and screaming at them, pushing them around, and getting nowhere. It’s the same with couples. It’s sad to see couples arguing and yelling and screaming like little kids thinking that will fix the problem. Jesus gave us a better way in speaking the truth in love.

Here is a challenge for you! Take the whole month of February in light of Valentine Day and the whole love thing and whenever you speak, to whomever you speak, speak the truth in love. This will be hard because we are moving through life so fast that we don’t even take the time to stop and talk to people many times. This will be hard because you will not want to offend anyone. I think people are offended more if you love them and tell them a lie! Make a conscious effort so always speak the truth and speak it in love. 

Where there is love, truth must be also! Scripture reference Ephesians 4.15

Comments? Suggestions?