It Ain’t Valentine’s Day Anymore, Honey!
It Ain’t Valentine’s Day No More, Honey!
How would you feel and what would you think, if someone you really love only expressed affection and tenderness one day a year, or maybe two if you throw in Christmas? It too is a day of tenderness brought on by the birth of the Christ child. No one I know wants to be a high priority one day and a no-priority on another.
With all the distractions available to us day and night, it isn’t easy to keep loving kindness and tenderness as priorities in our closest relationships. Having lived several decades now and been emersed in many and varied cultures, I have observed that in each era and each society the Enemy of our soul has published many easy-to-believe lies about affection, care, tenderness, and love.
I have seen and heard these and many more…not enough time or space to do a thorough time-line and map.
· “Somebody has to make a living around here and that takes time.”
· With all the demands of the farm(work), how do you expect me to spend more time with you or the kids.”
· “I am going to serve at the church and that means sacrificing my family.”
· “Business is slow right now, so it requires more of my time to generate more income, and that doesn’t leave me much time for being around the house much.”
· “Business is booming right now, so I have to take advantage of the good times, and that simply doesn’t leave me much time for us right now?”
· “Well, he/she doesn’t show much love anyway, so why bother?”
· “If you like living in this house, that is going to mean some sacrifices.”
Isn’t it strange that in many circumstances, the “things” that get sacrificed have a heartbeat and skin rather than things made of brick and mortar or are electronically powered?
May I suggest that at the end of all this life and these relationships, the priorities we will “wish to God” we had kept at the top of the list are the ones with heartbeats and hair?
Please take a minute and ask yourself two or three simple, perhaps profound questions:
1. What do I believe my priorities to be … really?
2. What do my closest relationships see or say my highest priorities are?
3. How am I doing at prioritizing deepening, love relationships with God and others?
Matthew 22:37-39 clearly states that Jesus believes these two areas of relationships are the highest priorities.
Though we can’t change the priorities of others, we can do something about our own. What do you say?
Years ago, one of my children who, at the time, was three or four years old, asked me in an innocent, heartfelt way a question that turned me around …not immediately but definitely and permanently.
I was about to rush out the door to another church meeting where I was expected to be…again. I heard, “Daddy, where are you going? I thought we were going to play?” I did have to go and left immediately, got into the car, and cried most of the way to church (work). I determined that day to take back what time I could, especially my nights, and do it intentionally. I have been reminded often that my wife and children (grandchildren) must be high on my list of people I care about, show love to, and come to know as deeply as they will let me. I have never regretted that decision and change of life. The blessings of loving relationships (not perfect relationships) have come to me in waves over the years. I am refreshed today because I love my family – not just in words, but in actions and truth. After all, talk is cheap.