In a few hours,Valentines day will be knocking, pleasure seeking shall once again take centre stage.

“Love gone sour” media stories will feature as environment accelerates desire (or the reverse). Dim lights and calculated diction will once again reign among  red bloodied males and their female prey.

But how then are believers expected to think on February 14th?

Shall we stick our heads in the sand and declare this a  “day of the heathen” or shall we seek to be reminded of some timeless truths?

I choose the later, because of the following reasons.

1. Iam not an animal 

On valentines day,I choose to be reminded that I am not an animal, that i am rational , that i was created in the image of God (Gen 1:27)  and so, my appetites are not animalistic too, they were designed to soar in the walls, security and protection of covenant marriage. lesson one.

2. Love includes but is not defined by feelings. 

Rhetoric i know,but some of us may have already discovered by now that what we called our deepest desire for our mate back  then actually turned tragic because it was grounded in more sentimentality than conviction. Uh? didn’t it? am taking your answer as lesson two.

3. Love is a lifetime, not Greenwich meridian time – (GMT) 

Well,the designated day is Feb 14th,but aren’t believers called to love beyond GMT? Isn’t our love defined by 1 Cor 13 rather than timezones?

4.We love because he first loved us. 

I like the way the writer of 1 John asks “how can you  claim to love God who you have never seen if you can’t love your neighbor?” (1 John 4:20)  he knows horizontal love is directly related to vertical love, Unbelievers who the scriptures call “futile in their thinking” (Rom 1:21)  cannot truly love because they have not known true love.

Fathoming love as God defines it in 1 Cor 13 is  what it means to enjoy Valentine’s day – the rest is clutter.

Four lessons as Friday approaches.

Wait a second, did I just wish you happy Valentine’s day?