Oh Mr. Postman……

Well, we all know what tomorrow is, right?

The holiday that is so great because you do not have to decorate your house and chocolate is just expected to be on the menu somewhere during the day.

Does anyone remember making a “mail box” of construction paper and taping it to your school desk back in the day when we didn’t send greetings by our Facebook and Twitter?

My mom would buy me a box of those Valentine cards and sit me at the table with my class list. I carefully selected one for each of my classmates and scribbled their name in pencil on the little white envelope.

It was such fun delivering them around the room. Until the year when kids’ moms quit monitoring the list, or kids chose to discard a few from their stash.

I learned the first lessons of rejection watching my desk get passed over by classmates to whom I had delivered my own offering of a cartoon greeting, complete with matching pun.

That was back in the day when political correctness and self esteem took a back seat to character training by fire. No teacher interceded. You lived with the Valentines you were dealt.

As you get older, you learn, everybody isn’t your “friend” and cliques form early.

For a second child/baby of the family/everything I did was adorable girl, this was a sting of reality that I found most unsettling. As in, WHATTTTT???? not everyone loves me? ME????

And thus began my launch into all sorts of behavior patterns of people pleasing, rejection angst, and psycho babble that we all encounter in life and react to in various ways.

As a Christian, I always knew God loved me. But sadly for much of my life, I used that as a fall back. Like it was a consolation prize.

So I didn’t get a Valentine from you, at least God loves me. So I didn’t get asked to your party, at least God loves me. So you rejected my attempts to start a friendship, at least God loves me.

This opened the door to a protective shell that often expressed itself in cynical and critical thought patterns. The worst part of this rotten mind set is that when I WAS included, when my Valentine mail box WAS full; well, that was all I needed. God’s love took second place. Until the next hurt feeling rolled in.

But thanks be to God, there is a maturing in the walk of faith!

Slowly and surely, God has gotten through this blonde brain and battered heart to show me that I had it backwards.

He is teaching me that if I will let Him fill my “Valentine mailbox” with His love FIRST, then all the other love that is extended to me is just overflowing blessing.

How about making a special effort today to put out a beautiful heart on the desk of your life for God to fill with His love? It does not compare with any other gift of love, because His love alone will not only fill your heart, but change it, forever.

As we are filled full with His love first, we can finally fulfill His command to love one another.

Happy Valentines Day! I do love you – and I am thanking God for each one of you!
Now let’s eat some chocolate!