Nearly everyone has an opinion about love. And if you don’t have any yet, just type ‘Love’ in google search and it will return about 4,400,000,000 (four billion, four hundred million) results to you in 0.51 seconds! The word love has that much diverse opinions, thoughts and definitions from various individuals and groups.
Since 19kpirigidim (3rd-century actually), after the death of St. Valentine, February has become the world acclaimed month of love and February 14th named the D-day for lovers. So you hear lots of people saying February 14 is Val’s day aka Lovers day. And this tag has caused a lot of people headaches, heartaches and heartbreaks. It has also made some to lose their sense of reasoning aka common sense as the day draws nearer. (For some history on St. Valentine’s real story, click here).
I must admit that it takes real hard work, serious conscious effort and the special Grace of God to not feel ‘somehow’ in this season if you do not have a special someone who is planning to ‘spoil’ you this weekend. The shouts and echoes of ‘love’ in the atmosphere is almost overwhelming. But just before you get carried away by the gift wrappings, online deals and other Valentine trappings, seat yourself down and ask yourself “What exactly do I know about St. Valentine?” And just before you crucify yourself or your special someone for not treating you exceptionally this weekend, ask your self this questions:
a. What is Love? (1 John 4:7-8)
b. What are the characteristics of love? (1 Corinthians 13:1-13)
c. Should love be celebrated only once in a year based on the world’s calendar?
- If your answer is no, then you shouldn’t let yourself get unnecessarily worked up this weekend.
d. Should my love for someone be determined by how I treat him/her on 14 February only?
- If your answer is no, then don’t judge anyone by how they treat you on the 14th of February or any other ‘special day’ of the year.
So beyond the chocolates, flowers, wines, teddy bears and other gifts of the season, whether you gave or received any, look beyond the packaging and remember that love should be given and received everyday. Don’t let yourself get carried away by the spirit of envy, ingratitude or even depression. Whether you got a gift or not, don’t kee yourself! Stop comparing your life with that of your friends or colleagues who you feel got gifts you deserved (and not them). And don’t diss your guy or baibe for not getting you the kin’of gift your friends got from their special someone. Be Content!
Be grateful that you are alive and more importantly seek out ways to give and show love this season. After all, blessed is the one that gives than the one that takes. Finally, if you can afford it, take some time out this weekend and give yaself some TLC me time. You can take yourself out or spend it indoors after service.
Btw, I am open to any gifts you may choose to send my way this weekend, hehehe.
Wishing y’all a fun and Fulfilled weekend/Valentine celebration. As always, don’t do anything that God will not approve of.
God bless y’all.
ChnyereDistinguished
PS: I’m grateful to you all that took out time to sympathize with me after my post on When Death Happens, may sorrow and grief not come your way in Jesus name, Amen.
distinguishedlives 
Nice piece. Love is meant to be demonstrated every single day, not only to our love once but to even a stranger or people we meet in our day-to-day activities.
Thanks for that insight. Happy Valentine’s day celebration.
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Thank you Obilor. You’re so right, we should show love not only to our loved ones but also strangers and people we meet in our day-to-day activities.
Happy Val’s day to you too dear
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Nice piece. Love is meant to be demonstrated every single day, not only to our love ones but to even strangers or people we meet in our day-to-day activities.
Thanks for that insight. Happy Valentine’s day celebration.
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….”The shout and echoes of love in the automosphere is almost overwhelming ………Just before you crusify yourself or someone special for not treating you exceptionally this weekend,ask your self this question …what is love?”
The accurate answer to this engaging deep thoughts and question from your special edition on” Val Craze: What is love to you”will truly cure the val craze and make us understand that love though inspite of how it has became enstranged to us, is actually our true nature,and must be brought back and practise on daily basis not be made just a large semblance of event to be done only on14th february.
It is also a curative insight -your special edition on Valentine….much thanks for helping to make lot of sense out of the euphoria called valetine, and for highlighting what true love or God’s kind of love actually means.
Indeed is a craze;I was on my way home yesterday’s night when I saw the traffic gridlocked surprisingly stretched from across Shoprite at Alausa to Ikeja underbridge;responsible for this was a mass celebration of Valentine, largely by supposed lovers in a bid to give or enjoy special val love treat,for me it was impressive and tempting as I began to search for my own love in my heart…..
The gifts sharing,the affection,the romantic dinner,and the red and white colour attires dorn by many of them, were the domineering factors at different joints including the Shoprite large premises in Alausa and other eatries ,it was indeed tempting like you aptly observed even for those of us singles who are very cauteous owing to our faith and what we know as the real love which God gave;not that I consider it a sin,but there is a saying that implies that “don’t wake up love unless you are ready”…..in other word,the right person,the right motive and focus must be factored and resolved…
The reality is that,in the absence of the real love that has become scarce especially in many homes today, many have opted to celebrate semblance of love in place of the real love as described by the word of God,it also pleasurable while it last, but it might just be hit and run.Even though Valentine came out of a noble course,but the world have twisted it towards other ends that is only sensuous but negates the essentials of true love.
For instance,on the very val day, many new relationships will spring up on the 14th of February, while some existing ones (or hearts)are broken; for others,romance and sex are enjoyed to the fulliest with no marriage context or caution which may results in unwanted pregnancy; also material gifts are exchanged and those who cannot afford it as promised resort to insincere method to cover up or to meet up with the promise in exchange for sexual gratification,afterwards the love is suspended for another Valentine day thereby reducing love to mere transactions of when the going is good,the very essense of love is thus undermined.
Love is God’s nature as described by the scripture that you rightly quoted above,and God also has romantic nature because it is His idea and marriage instution is His as well ,otherwise we would not have Songs of Solomon in the Scriptures that is full of romance; in fact I would not go into a marriage that would be devoid of rich romance which is a pleasurable part of humanity, but what is wrong in the celebration of Valentine is the shallow motive of many youngsters in it and how they do it expecially as is being used to twist the very essense of love as described by God’s words and also as Val is not directed by the scripture.It is also use to short changed the wholesome benefits that love is meant to give by confusing its context,and everytime you remove the word of God from its context,it will only produce con meaning deception and fraud.
Valentine is a heroic priest who gave his life (was excuted) in order to protect marriage by deliberately disobeying the edit ( laws)made by a selfish Emperor Claudius to prohibits marriage of young men or its officiation because he felt they make them better soldiers and commitment while remaing unmarried ;Val died for the noble course of those who decided to love each other and marry each other till the end and build a family as one in fullfiment of God’s purpose on earth as regards marriage; so the context represent marriage and relationships towards that end; it did not violates God’s words literal sense,except for those who often use it to violate it ,eg furnication,mostly out of ignorance,deception or deliberate intention,is a personal choice and its no doubt pleasurable depending on the motive of those celebrating it.May God forgive our shortcoming in this regard.
What is love should therefore centre on God’s kind of love and that is what is mostly lacking in our world today- if Valentine was to be the driving force of love,it will only happen once in a year or at most 2 weeks from 14 th February,the rest will be everyone for himself,little wonder many are in search of it now including myself.hahahaha…
My persuation has been accurately captured in your second scripture (1Cor.13:4-8)- that love is full of protecting others and involves sacrifices,it seeks others interest,It hates evil,and it full of humility, it believes the best in others,it full of giving than taking, but because there is a law of receiving it comes back to you in much bigger folds; no wonder God gave Jesus Christ (Jn.3:16) in order to reconcile and return man back to Himself( 2 Cor 5:16-21)…and that is because the love we are all searching for is the essense of all that God did since creation ( 1 Jn 4: 10).
From the piont of same love,He summed up or reduced all the multiple commandments (laws) to man to only two-one for Himself and the other for us and even went further and reduced it to one- that you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mk 12:28-31)the implication of this,is that if you love your neighbor( everyone around you whom your actions can affects)then you will do no one wrong; but how can one love others if he does not love himself or have it to give, as one cannot give what he does not have? Meaning that you and I have to love ourselves first by accepting God’s love so that we can now have it to give to others,that is what is missing from the Val celebration,though I think Valentine deserves to be celebrated for the very heroic course he achieved on its merit.
However,the problem is that the standard kind of love portrays by God is impossible for the natural man to run with,since the fall of Adam,as the first and last instincts of man which is self preservation (rather God’s preservstion)is very stoborn as always,often getting in the way, playing out in the realm of greed,selfishness, covertiousness ,pride and worry on what to eat ,drink or wear,etc.Jesus dealt with them all (Matt 7),but we are still batting with them since today,though many of us believer are still work in progress and will surely get there; how we can overcome is by international decision to understand and love others in the true sensen of it and that is where prayern comes in ….that the lord should grant us grace to truly love others and our spouses in the way He loves us; from there we can gradually improves while doing it;much more of this is even required in marriage for it to succeed.Believers must therefore be properly thought and guided on the concept of God’s love- side by side with what the world consider as Val so that the chaff can be separated from the wheat; for me one who holds the concept of love even in Val,but in line with God’s standard or in the romance of virtues love cannot go wrong.
On that note, my summary description of love is that, it is a consistent selfless expression of kindness ,care, affection and sacrifice (s) to someone both in material and immaterial things regardless of the persons flaws, which can only make sense in God….am not there yet,but I will continue to try towards that end, with God’s help.
Sorry that this feedback appears long, but this topic is inexhaustible in few lines, as it was the main subject that inspired God to produce the scriptures ,containing 66 books,36 authors spanning over 2 years to write.
Much thanks royalty : keep going dear…
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Wow, your feedback is really a long one and it’s very welcome.
I particularly love this part:
“The reality is that, in the absence of the real love that has become scarce especially in many homes today, many have opted to celebrate semblance of love in place of the real love as described by the word of God, it is also pleasurable while it last, but it might just be hit and run. Even though Valentine came out of a noble course, but the world have twisted it towards other ends that is only sensuous but negates the essentials of true love.” I couldn’t have put it better.
Thanks again Frank
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LOVE; easier said than done…. ‘no be by TALK, na by ACTION’.
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So true Sir. “no be by talk, na by action”,
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