VALENTINE’S DAY

February 14, 2009

EXPLORATION

“Perfect” – Without defect or omission. Sound. Accurate. Absolute. To bring to completion. To finish.

How can I find the “perfect” love?

“Love cannot be forced, love cannot be coaxed and teased. It comes out of Heaven, unasked and unsought.”
Pearl S. Buck

INSPIRATION

If there is one singer whose voice has always touched my heart, it is the late, great Ray Charles. I can go through a box of Kleenex listening to his “Standards” album. Furthermore, there’s no single song that gets to me like Ray Charles’ rendition of “Without Love There Is Nothing.” When his plaintive voice lets loose with the words, “Without love I have nothing,” I grab the first hankie. And I’m really in “tears-ville” when he wails, “As I looked at my life, it was barren and so bare, without love I had nothing – nothing at all!” Have you been down this road? Have you felt barren? Do you feel today – on Valentine’s Day of all days – that you have nothing at all?

Statistics tell us that over 50% of women in America are single. Alone. Living by themselves. The people whose job it is to collect these statistics say this is the first time there have been this many unmarried women.

This may mean that on a day when other people are thinking about love – you don’t want to! It may mean you are a little lonely today! You didn’t get flowers. You didn’t get candy. You didn’t get a card. And if you did, maybe the love you thought you had has faded over the years. Things just aren’t like they used to be.

Well, girls – our lonely days are gone! Forever!

I’m here to deliver a Valentine to your heart. Your search is over! You have finally found the “perfect” love.

But to know we have found the “perfect” love, our first job is to make certain we have identified the right characteristics. Because our mistake is that we think love looks a certain way, talks a certain way, smiles and winks a certain way and before you know it, we have fallen for the “wrong” kind of love. I know from personal experience just what I’m talking about and I bet you do, too. So let’s make certain we can recognize the “real deal!” Here it is:

Characteristic #1 –Real love draws us “with loving kindness.” Real love doesn’t order. It doesn’t demand. It doesn’t coerce. In Jeremiah 31: 3, we read about the “perfect” love, “With loving-kindness have I drawn you.” Perfect love pulls us toward the one who loves us.

Characteristic #2 – Real love is everlasting. It never ends. It never dies. It never stops. “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love,” or as The Message states: “I’ve never quit loving you and never will” (Jeremiah 31: 3).

Characteristic #3 – Real love doesn’t stop at anything to win our love. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3: 16, King James Version).

Would you like a love today that draws you with loving kindness…a love that is everlasting…a love that won’t stop at anything to win your heart? Then all you have to do is open the door. He’s standing there…that “perfect” love you’ve been looking and waiting for all your life. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if you hear My voice, open the door, and I will come in and stay with you – forever!” (Revelation3: 20).

My prayer is that today you will open the door to Jesus and let this become the best “love” day of your life.

“No cord or cable can draw so forcibly, or bind so fast, as love can do with a single thread.”
Robert Burton

AFFIRMATIONS

“I’ve never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love, and more love!”
Jeremiah 31: 3, The Message

“Where there is great love there are always miracles.”
Will Cather

Your friend,
Dorothy Valcàrcel