Hello Y'all! It is good to finally post again. I apologize it has been a while, but school will do that to you. I will be honest though school is not the only thing that has occupied my time. I am happy to say that a wonderful man has entered my life and I just had to share. Because it is Valentine's Day I felt it appropriate to share. We met when we were kids and when he was 7 and I was 8 he asked me to be his girlfriend. I said no. He was devastated but continued to love me for 10 years now. We started talking a couple months ago and now we are an official couple will be for a month so far on the 17th of this month. He is so good to me and shows me the best kind of love as Christ shows to the church. It is pure, beautiful, unconditional, and sacrificial and I thank God for what a blessing He has given me. But I didn't want to post just to tell you guys how great my boyfriend is. I wanted to talk about Valentine's Day.
I know some of you guys do different things for the holiday that falls on February 14th every year. Some of you celebrate what has come to be known as Singleness Awareness Day. That is not an official term but I think it should be because a lot of my friends "celebrate" that as they are happy being single at the moment. Other of you would like to have a significant other but don't and you buy yourselves half off candy on the 15th and move on with your year. Some of y'all have significant others and maybe you go on a date or buy each other cute little gifts and spend the day together. For most people though, Valentine's Day is just another commercial holiday that would be better suited as non-existent. Many people thing that the very root of this holiday is for people to make more money and for couples to have an excuse to go out. I am here to tell you the true story of how Valentine's day got started.
St. Valentine's Day
So to begin I want to give a disclaimer. I have not done official research on this story but I can confirm that it is a true story and not just a legend. I will give my version of the story as I heard it and you can research the rest out for yourself. There are, I'm sure, many different variations of the story so this one is mine. I hope you enjoy!
So many years ago there was a man who's name was Valentine. He was an ordained minister who would perform marriage ceremonies for the people in his country. Unfortunately, the king in his country decided that he needed an army because they were about to go to war. He noticed that the men who did not have families to tie them back to home would be better warriors and he felt that those with families were weak. So, the king outlawed marriage. As you can imagine this put Valentine in a tough position. He was a minister ordained by God and the government to perform marriages for people. Not only that but God created marriage for people and people for marriage. It was biblical. How could the king make such a demand of his people? You would expect that the people would rebel against the king and still make requests to be married and you would be right. And Valentine was just the man for the job. People came to him to get married in secret as they did with other ministers. The law was firm though and the king had anyone performing wedding ceremonies in secret arrested, thrown into prison, and killed. Valentine went on for a while without being caught but was soon discovered and put into prison. This seems like it would be a problem for Valentine but it was not because he had God on his side and he prayed everyday. While he was in prison Valentine was brought food by the jailer's blind daughter. He began befriending her and growing quite fond of her. She expressed to him her unbelief in God because what kind of god would allow her to be blind. She was saddened by the thought that she would always be an outcast delivering food to prisoners because her blindness made her feel inadequate. Valentine shared the good news of Jesus with the girl and she had trouble believing. As she continued to bring him food their relationship grew and they began to love each other. Valentine intended to marry the girl when he escaped prison. One day Valentine found himself praying for the jailer's daughter and she became healed and could see. She believed and was saved as was her father. Unfortunately, Valentine discovered through the jailer's daughter that he was to be executed very soon. There was nothing they could do and both the jailer and his daughter were saddened by this. Valentine on the other hand was not distraught for he would meet his savior very soon. The night before his death he wrote the jailer's daughter a letter telling of his love for her and how he would miss her and for her not to be sad for they would one day meet again. The next day Valentine died and the day of Saint Valentine was carried on many years after that. The very first valentine note was the last words of a man to a girl written in the form of a love letter signed "Your Valentine".
That was the story of St. Valentine. I hope you guys enjoyed! There may be more to that story that I left out and if I recall correctly it was up for debate whether or not the jailer's daughter was healed but that was the story as I heard and remembered it. Y'all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!