V-Day post

This Sunday marks the arrival of my least favorite of all holidays, Valentines Day. For those who know me, I take particular delight in hating this day. In my humble opinion it is nothing more than a made up holiday invented by the greeting card industry to make up for the lag in sales between Christmas and Mother's Day. The fact the florists, candy companies, and jewelry stores cash in too only deepens my dislike. Seriously, does it really have to cost buttloads of money to tell your significant someone you love them??? Doesn't a simple "I love you" followed up with a big hug and kiss work on that day?

It's Ok for me to be anti-V Day but I'd rather not quash the fun for the kids. Carolyn of course loves pink and hearts so naturally, a holiday that is full of pink, hearts, and candy tops her list of favorite holidays. Matthew just likes the idea of having a classroom party and Andrew is still clueless. Yes, the schools still have parties and kids still pass out those dippy meaningless paper valentines to everyone in the class. Unlike poor Charlie Brown, everyone gets a valentine and the trend now is to pair said valentines with some sort of candy treat or sticker or tattoo. Really, I'm not making it up, the majority of boxed valentines come with either a candy treat or tattoo, with a smaller number having some sort of sticker, usually glow in the dark.

Last weekend I took Matthew and Carolyn with me to Wal-mart to buy valentines for their parties. Carolyn wanted ones with cute kitties and puppies on them and I wanted Matthew to pick his own out so he wouldn't complain if I bought ones he did not like. I was actually afraid that since I was looking the first week in February everything would be picked over. After all, Valentines stuff started showing up Dec 26 so folks had lots of time to buy. Never fear, they still had a nice selection. Both Carolyn and I spotted some adorable kitten and puppy valentines and I saw a box with Spiderman on it but Matthew decided on doing G-Force instead. G-Force was the movie with Guinea pigs in it for those who don't know. I also snabbed some 3-D valentines with a sports ball theme for Andrew to take. Matthew's valentines had glow in the dark stickers to go with them and Carolyn's had sweet tarts. Andrew's were just cool to look at. I also bought three boxes of candy for the kids to take to their teachers. I'm sure at $1 a box those poor teachers got tons of them from well meaning parents but the kids loved the idea.

It wasn't until I got home and actually looked at Carolyn's box of valentines that I realized what it was I bought. In small writing on the top was the word inspirational. The sample cards on the front were pretty typical in wording so at first glance nothing seemed out of order. It was the second two cards in the box that caught my attention. One of them was a cute dachshund and said God loves you and the second one had an adorable kitten and said God made you special. The verse God is Love from 1 John 4:8 (New Living Translation) was also printed on the back of all four designs. I started giggling and got this happy feeling as I pictured Carolyn handing out these valentines to her classmates. Nothing like defying that whole separation of Church and State thing and bringing religion into the public schools. Ok ACLU, go ahead and sue me because my 5 year old handed some kids in her classroom valentine cards with "God loves you" on them. Yes, I sent them to school with her, and no, I did not separate the non-religious ones out. I simply turned then over and signed her name to 11 of them and stuffed a sweet tart in the front and put them in her backpack.

I got to thinking about those little valentines and how they relate to the holiday. I hate the day simply because it is not about love, it's about how much money we can spend to impress the person we claim to be in love with. Romance has gotten so overblown that it is not enough to tell your someone you love them , you have to go into debt showing them too. I guess that will be my opinion as long as I have to put up with this holiday and all the hype surrounding it.

The cards I sent to school with Carolyn were simple in their message....God loves. Taking that message I realize that on Valentines Day I have someone who loves me unconditionally and without strings. I don't have to buy Him anything nor do I have to live up to the unrealistic expectations of the day in order to receive His love. Best of all, that love is all day every day, all year every year regardless of what the holiday is.

I Still hate Valentine's Day!!!