How I’m Spending V-Day

[This post has potentials of being extremely mushy or incredibly depressing. But I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.]

It’s Friday, February 14th, Valentine’s Day.

I was thinking about what I should do for Valentine’s Day, since it’s a Friday, and I don’t have anyone else to plan my Valentine’s Day for me.

I came up with three options:

1.) I could be super-sappy and throw hearts everywhere and sing every soul-melting Disney song ever written, and buy flowers and chocolate and jump up and down for the love of love. But nobody likes that, and flowers are expensive.

2.) I could focus on the fact that I am unmarried, not in a relationship, and exaggerate that I have no prospects whatsoever and complain about the fact that nobody is buying me flowers or chocolate or anything and declare that this is the stupidest holiday ever and hate everyone who is getting something for Valentine’s Day and say mean things about the pictures they post all day of the perfect gift they just got and blah blah blah. But nobody likes that either, and the end result is me having a horrible day just for the sake of having a horrible day. 

3.) I could be happy for my friends who are getting gifts from their love, and I could make homemade Valentines and have a fun lunch with my nieces and nephews complete with heart-covered plates and napkins (yes I totally did that, and yes, I am the best aunt ever), and thank God for parents who love me and a Dad who still dotes on me and calls me his Valentine and buys me mugs that look like camera lenses, and I could dream about how fantastic it will be when God’s man for me walks into my life to love me 365 days a year, and I could remember that the Creator of the universe and the very essence of Love and hence Author of all things lovely loves me without expectations, and has loved me all of the days of my life and even before that. 

What would you choose?

I’m going with Door #3. Throw in a little homework, some Olympics, and a LOT of chocolate ice cream, and I think that makes for a pretty great Valentine’s Day 2014. I can’t complain. Or, at least, I shouldn’t complain.

So here’s the thing. It would be really easy for me to be down in the dumps today. The whole “Singles Awareness Day” route is pretty tempting. If I let my emotions take over, I could be really angry, really jealous, really pitiful, and really annoying all at the same time—if I let my emotions run my life.

But it’s much better for all of us if I don’t.

See, it’s nearly impossible to control when and where and how your emotions happen. But you can decide what you’re going to do with them. Will you let them run your life? Will you allow them to make your February 14th unbearable every year? Or will you choose to use them wisely, in accordance with Truth?

Now where’s that chocolate ice cream?