LOVE day

commercials, cards, gifts - everyone is shouting "EXPRESS YOUR LOVE"
...on this one day of the year...

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:14

and i say, let's embrace it!
i love this LOVE.
this precious gift. straight from the Heavenly Father to us.
for HIM, for our lovers, for our children, family and friends.
LOVE. i'm in love with it.
because in the end it's all about HIM.

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 John 3:16

without HIS love i certainly wouldn't have much love for that husband of mine that forgets to take out the trash or doesn't unload the dishwasher {not very often, i must say}.

without HIS love i certainly wouldn't love that boy of mine that chooses to scream at me most of dinner prep time.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17

without HIS love it would be near impossible to love friends and family that easily disappoint.

without HIS love anger, bitterness, and unforgivable easily become my attitude.

 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:7-8

so celebrating the LOVE day isn't about expressing love because i'm being told to.
it's about THANKFULNESS for the love i do have. from HIM, for others, from others. 

 And Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37–40