.Love and Valentines day.

Valentines day. Your favorite holiday?? Maybe, but walking around my school today I saw more than 5 dozen people complaining about "Not having a valentine". I can see why that is sad, because sure, I didn't have one either...but they took it to the extreme. "No one loves me!", "My life sucks because I didn't get flowers, I must not be loved by anyone!", "Love sucks!". These are the things I heard from kids around my school today, and it really got me thinking.

First of all, God loves everyone. I mean come on, even non-Christians know the most well-known verse about God's love for his people: John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. That whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

Secondly, anyone who says they are not loved by anyone needs to seriously look at their life again. Everyone is blessed by God with people in their lives who love them, (just hearing all these complaints really helped me realize that I too have tons of love in my life) I want to look at 3 kinds of love here in this blog because I've been thinking about it all day, and this is the first place I could pour it all out.

1) Friendly love. The dictionary defines platonic love as: ~purely spiritual; free from sensual desire, esp. in a relationship between two persons of the opposite sex.~ Now honestly, we all have friends, if someone hated you they would not be your friend. Now there is some love right there. John 15:13 says "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." I love all my friends, Church friends, school friends, family friends...I love all my friends. So if you have a friend, you are most likely loved in at least one way so far.

2) Non-Platonic love.I couldn't really think of a word opposite of platonic that wasn't inappropriate, so I went with that. People who are dating, if they date long enough, and they grow close to someone they can end up loving eachother. Now this is a great feeling, having a girlfriend (or boyfriend for you girls who read this), that you feel so close to, someone who knows everything about you, that you love. This is the love that valentines day launches into our faces. Now, you might have a girlfriend/boyfriend, you might not, but this is the only thing the people at my school were looking for. They didn't necessarily have a "special someone" to celebrate this day with, but that does not mean that they are not loved. God encourages love between men and women, and for them to get married: Matthew 19:5 "...and said,'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?" There isn't anything wrong with loving someone like this at all, but at a high-school, it shouldn't be the end of the world if you're single.

3) (The most important love) The love for God. I found a collection of verses on this topic:

Matthew 22:37-38; Jesus replied, "’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment."

I John 4:19; "We love him, because he first loved us."

Deuteronomy 6:5; "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength."

Those are only a few of the verses in the Bible about loving God, but they are some of my favorites.It seems like I am rambling right about now, so I'll get to the whole point of this blog; We all have love, we all need it, and we all need to give it. For those downcast about being single should remember Bobby's message this past weekend, when your downcast look to the Lord. Being single isn't the end of the world, and you certainly have love, always. The love of God lasts for an eternity, and we should all recognize this :]