With All My Heart

My earliest Valentine memories are of red construction paper hearts and white paper doilies and heart-shaped candies with messages like "Be Mine". Back in elementary school we made our valentine "mailboxes" out of construction paper, or by decorating brown paper bags with construction paper hearts.

As I grew older, Valentine's Day came to be less about construction paper and more about flowers and chocolates that came in heart-shaped boxes.

Fast-forward to 1971, when I met a special young man. A little more than a year later, on a warm summer evening, I married that young man! We drove away from the church that evening singing along with Karen Carpenter......"We've only just begun....".
For the nearly 48 years that we have been married, that has remained "our song".

But today, I have another song ringing in my heart.  On this day when all the world is thinking about hearts and flowers and chocolates and love, my thoughts have turned to what love is really all about. To that greatest expression of love. To the Savior who gave His life that I might have life eternal. Today, this is the song I'm singing......

With all my heart

I want to love you, Lord,

And live my life

Each day to know you more.

All that is in me

Is yours completely.

I'll serve you only

With all my heart.

(--Babbie Mason)

On this Valentine's Day, yes, I love my husband.......my sweetheart for all these years......and I'm so grateful for that party invitation all those years ago. He really is my Knight in Shining Armour, my very own Prince Charming!

But even more than that, I am so very grateful for my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who loved me, not because I am worthy of His love, but even though I am not. Who loved me enough to die for me!  That's the best Valentine ever!

"We love because He first loved us."  (1 John 4:19 NASB)