Valentines day has always been one of my favorite days for celebration. Call it what you will, cheesy, pointless, stupid, a way for stores to get your money, inevitable expectation-crushing, but what I have found is just another day in the year that I get an excuse to shower love on my best friends! In addition, I get to do it in the most lovey dovey, pink, and cheery way possible. While I understand that Valentines day is definitely geared more towards women I still think it can be a very fun way to romance your significant other! I have always loved Valentine’s day, both when I was single and now that I am married, and one of my best moments in life have been on Valentine’s day so with that I will say that regardless of your situation there is a reason to love! This article will talk about married life, single life and in the end tie it back to the greatest and most pure love to ever exist and a little cute Valentine fun with our ever photogenic Willow! Enjoy!

For those who are married or in a relationship:

Nothing will annoy me more then a bitter person on Valentines Day. Usually it isn’t the people who don’t have a significant other, but instead, more often then not, it’s the person in the relationship that finds it annoying for someone to force on them a day where there is an expectation to love. They use the excuse, “I don’t need to have a day to love, I do it all the time.” or “I don’t wanna spend money on something so stupid when it’s not different then any other day.” My biggest concern when I hear this is why not? If it’s just like any other day….why not today? If it’s something you do “all” the time why wouldn’t a thing like this just flow naturally? Why wouldn’t you want to shower the one you love? Why wouldn’t you want to go do something cheesy or weird for them? My biggest concern with people like this is that it is not a regular habit of theirs so when this day comes around it exposes them and they feel nothing but hate and annoyance for the day and bash it like crazy. I cannot tell you how many friends over the years have come to me hurt because their man refuses to do something for them and instead makes a point about how stupid it is. This has always been something that absolutely crushes my heart. Men, how is that love when you are deliberately putting hurt on someone you love to make a point of not giving into the scene of Valentines day? Stop being prideful and just give some love to your woman! It doesn’t have to be something crazy and over the top just show them you love them enough to get off your high horse and do something for them!

I understand that all couples are different. I know couples who, on both sides, are not that type of personality at all or are not people who care about things like that. That’s totally fine. Not every girl was wired to enjoy something like this. So go sit on the couch, watch a movie, get pizza, whatever you would normally do, and that for you is showing love! Even if your women puts on the front that she doesn’t like Valentine’s day, I will say that there is still a part in every girl that desires to be cared for, cherished, and loved. They might not admit to it because they don’t want to “make” you do something but would rather “want” to do something to show her love. We all to some degree want to feel special. That is one of the ways we were wired, so put a little effort in and shower on some love.

Now you ladies that have unrealistic exceptions and unachievable goals for your man to achieve have only yourself to blame when you are disappointed. Don’t put that on your man. You married him knowing the kind-of guy that he was and how romantic he was in general so don’t push something on him that isn’t him. Ladies, in the end, life is not a fairy-tale or what you see in movies so don’t put those exceptions on him. Make your own fairytale and love pattern unique to your marriage and stop looking around to movies or the world to define what that looks like for your relationship.

A little about our marriage:

I am going to open up a little about our marriage because I believe there are some things that just come easier to some people. This is an area that comes easy for us so if I can share any point of “wisdom” I want to! Anyways, some how I ended up with the best man I know and on top of that is romantic as all get out. God obviously knew how much I would need a guy like this! Though I have an obsession with all things Valentine, I will say our display of love is not limited to this day alone and that’s what makes it so great! Though Valentines day makes it easier to be cheesy, pink, and romantic, it is not the only time for us. We have created a norm in our marriage where displays of love are encouraged like crazy! It is not uncommon that we will surprise each other with a date night or treat or fun night in. And I love this, I love the spontaneousness of our love and how much we both share a great desire to display that to one another through the year! “Love” is not something that is hard for us to display to each other and the randomness of our love makes things fresh and ever exciting! There are some couples I have come across where it hardly seems like they are in love (while I know it comes with different personalities, I also know it is a struggle for some to love) and hardly look like anything other then friends. We had a conversation one night after seeing this in a few couples and we just made the observation that we think love to us comes very easy and natural and for that we are blessed. It’s not something we have to work hard at. With that being said we have a whole other list of struggles and things that are hard for us but love and romance is just not one of them.

Scotty is actually way better at it than me and honestly I really don’t know how I got so lucky. We have a joke going that he loves too much Haha because at times it appears as though there is never an off switch! haha!  Some things we struggle with are being productive with things we don’t care about as much. We are very productive in our talents such as music for him and photography for me but things like bills, numbers, car maintenance, vet visits, etc. we are so bad about getting around to doing those basic menial tasks! We are just not task originated people and it comes out the most with things we could care less about! So we do have struggles but showing love is not one because for us it always started with love and a much greater love and that’s what we constantly come back to!

Single people:

I know today might be hard and I am not disregarding that side of things but I will say that even when I was single I found a way to enjoy a day about love! I made little gifts for friends, threw parties, etc. and it was so much fun! Notice above I used the word best friends and that’s what I truly mean. It’s not just a day to show love to your significant other but also to your friends. We all need encouragement and support so let this day be a fun and cheesy way to do it! I am a firm believer that you should be doing this all year round but why not add a little girly fun to the mix for Valentines day?! So don’t throw a pity party for yourself, don’t compare yourself to other couples or people. Go be a light! There are a TONS of people to love and a ton of people who are hurting! So go encourage, love, and support your friends!

The main thing:

Love begins and ends with God, His son Jesus Christ and his ultimate sacrifice for us on the cross! On this day of love I am reminded of the complete and never-ending love that comes from my Heavenly Father! May we make much of Christ today! He is our standard of love so let’s look to him and his example! When you have this as your main thing, love towards others will come easy because you will see more clearly the love that was first shown! (You can take a look at 1 John 3-16-18, 4:7-12, John 3:16, 1 Corinthians 13, and SO many more wonderful Scriptures that display love!)

I believe in love.

With my whole heart I believe in love.

Because I was first loved.

And I have loved in return.