HAPPY VALENTINES DAY

Today is a day for lovers. All over the world today, thousands....maybe MILLIONS of women will be lavished with roses, chocolate, perfume, teddy bears, diamonds and more....all in the name of LOVE.

Maybe you are one of the lucky women who will be acknowledged and pampered and treated with one of the above. Or maybe you are alone and for you Valentine's Day is a day that makes you feel more alone than ever...more unloved, more unwanted, more undesirable than any other day of the year.

Maybe you are a widow and you remember your husband today and all the Valentines you shared together, and you miss him terribly today. Today makes you sad.

So here's a thought today for ALL of us...men and women, attached and unattached, expecting a Valentine or expecting nothing. Today is ultimately about L-O-V-E. And Love is about giving. Think back to our Love chapter, I Corinthians 13: 4-8:

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.

Love doesn't strut,

Doesn't have a swelled head,

Doesn't force itself on others,

Isn't always "me first,"

Doesn't fly off the handle,

Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn't revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back,

But keeps going to the end.

(The Message)

If we read this and remember, IT'S NOT ABOUT ME....Let me say that again....IT'S NOT ABOUT ME (OR YOU!!), it's about glorifying God with all that we are and all that we have, we can ultimately make this the best Valentines Day ever!

How? By reaching out to someone else today. Reach out to someone who may not normally receive a Valentine. Maybe you have an elderly neighbor who lives alone. Maybe you know of a young woman who is not in a relationship and will probably spend today alone. Maybe it's the girl in the checkout line at Walmart who will check out every guy's last minute Valentine purchase today, standing 8-10 hours on her feet, making minimum wage to put food on the table for her kids, with no thought of a Valentine from her husband....maybe while you are picking up a bouquet for YOUR sweetheart....you could pick up one for her and just give it to her after she checks you out....or leave it anonymously at the Service Desk and ask them to give it to her. Maybe you could do something nice for your parents or your grandparents today or an aunt or uncle. Maybe you could take a bouquet of flowers or a box of chocolates to the local nursing home and ask the manager to just give them anonymously to someone who never has a visitor or gets a gift...they will know.

Ask God to direct you today. Ask Him who YOU can be a blessing to today! I guarantee you He will show you and this will be the BEST Valentine's Day you will ever have!!!!!!!!!

A GIFT FOR ALL SEASONS

The CHRISTmas rush is on!!!!!!!! CHRISTmas is only 1 week away! I am still trying to finish up my shopping.

Yet I know that there are many this CHRISTmas who may not have much to put under their tree. There are parents worrying about how they will give their children anything this year. Many families have lost jobs. Many are struggling to just hold on to their homes. Others are struggling to put food on the table. Stockings may be empty this year.

We live in such an affluent society that it has become the "norm" to have lots of gaily wrapped packages beneath our tree. We want the latest and the greatest in electronics, technology, and fashion. We feel we are shortchanging our family members if we don't fulfill their every wish.

I think back to old movies I've seen of how things used to be in the "good old days". Parents would make their gifts for their children. And getting one special gift was HUGE!! They were wrapped in brown paper and tied up with string, yet eyes were bright with excitement as the children joyously opened the package to find a rag doll or a toy carved from wood. Stockings might have a little penny candy from the general store or if really lucky, a piece of fruit.

Maybe we need to go back to those days. Not really................but, there is nothing wrong with making gifts to put under your tree. And there is no written rule that says there has to be more than one.

I can remember back to the early days of our marriage, our country was in a recession at that time also (although I do not remember it being as bad as it is now!). Money was very tight. I was a stay-at-home mom and my husband had a job, but it did not pay a whole lot. It provided what we NEEDED, but not a lot extra.

One CHRISTmas stands out in my mind because that year I made most of our CHRISTmas gifts. We drew names in our extended family, and I made almost all of those gifts. I remember doing macrame' because that was a big deal back then. I made purses, I made a thing for our nephew that hung on the door and held his bat, his glove and his baseball. I made a lot of baked goods and shared with neighbors and other extended family. It was a great CHRISTmas!!

I was not ashamed that was all we could do. It was the best we could do and there was a lot of love that went into making all of those things. I don't remember if it was that year or another one, but I also made my husband curtains for his shop. Now I know you are thinking "Curtains for a man's shop? Just what every guy dreams of !!" But these were very rustic, had deer on them and helped to make his tiny shop (which was really just a shed) a little warmer. I went to the fabric store, having just the right fabric in mind. I searched and searched, but only found fabric with ducks, horses and dogs! I stopped searching momentarily and breathed a prayer, "Lord, I HAVE to have fabric with deer on it. None of these will do. PLEASE help me to find what I am looking for...AND at a reasonable price". I started down the row of fabrics again. There tucked between two other larger bolts was this small bolt of fabric with deer on it. And that's not all....it was 1/2 price!! I was thrilled beyond words. I knew that God had answered my prayer and provided just what I needed to complete this special gift for the one I loved.

Gifts do not have to be huge, costly or ornate. The most important characteristic of a gift should be the thought that is behind it. If it is given with love from the heart with the intention of blessing the one to whom it is given, it does not matter if it only costs $1.00, it will be the best gift under the tree.

This year if you are struggling with what to give someone, or if your CHRISTmas account is all but non-existent, I urge you to think about what you can give that does not cost much or better yet, that costs nothing monetarily at all. Here are just a few suggestions:


Homemade goodies....so few people actually bake anymore, it is a real treat!

A good book....there are a lot of book stores that carry used books and you can get a good used book that looks like brand new for very little money. Goodwill stores are a great place to look!

If you have a skill that could bless someone, give them a gift "coupon" for something that would be helpful to them or bless them....i.e. if you are an organizer, offer to organize their kitchen or files, etc. ; if you are good at doing nails, offer to give them a manicure a month for a year; if they have small children, offer to babysit one night a month for a year; if you like to shop and they are unable to get around well, offer to be their personal shopper; if they are elderly and cannot drive, offer to be their personal "chauffer" once a month.

There are a few other gifts that we can ALL give and we don't have to wait for CHRISTmas to give them:


A smile

A kind word

A hug

A listening ear

A card to cheer someone who is going through a rough time

An email prayer

The words "I'm sorry"

Grace............overlooking the things people do that irritate us or perturb us or hurt us, recognizing that we, too, need others to lavish grace on us when we do those things

Forgiveness

Compassion

A helping hand


And, of course the BEST gift you could give anyone, would be to share CHRIST with them for He truly is the gift for all seasons.

A GIFT FOR ALL SEASONS

Wondering what to get that person on your list that has everything? Maybe the following will give you an idea:



This would be the perfect gift for Christmas…SIMPLE WHITE ENVELOPE

It's just a small white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past 10 years or so.

It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas --oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it -- the overspending, the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma -- the gifts given in desperation because you couldn't think of anything else.

Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties, and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.

Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended. Shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler's ears. It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford.

Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn't acknowledge defeat. Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, 'I wish just one of them could have won,' he said. 'They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.'

Mike loved kids -- all kids -- and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball, and lacrosse. That's when the idea for his present came.

That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church. On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition --one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on. The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning, and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents. As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure.

The story doesn't end there. You see, we lost Mike last year due to cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning it was joined by three more. Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad.

The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing around the tree with wide-eyed anticipation watching as their fathers take down the envelope. Mike's spirit, like the Christmas spirit, will always be with us.

May we all remember Christ, who is the reason for the season, and the true Christmas spirit this year and always.

---copied