It’s always fun to look back to see what I had posted about on Valentine’s Day in years past. I loved this one from a couple of years ago for several reasons…
Valentine’s Day at my house is a little atypical I believe. We don’t buy expensive cards for each other (though we have been known to look at cards, each pick one, show them to each other, react appropriately (ahhhh), and put them back. Sorry Hallmark.), flowers rarely appear, and if an occasional gift of dark chocolate appears, it is usually just because I.NEED.CHOCOLATE.
Instead, Valentine’s love around here is shown by Gary starting the laundry before I’m even out of bed, and then getting started on the Really Big Event of the day –
Changing the oil and filters on Lizzie.
Now that’s Love! “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with action and in truth.†I John 3:18
Reason one – there was chocolate this year! Mind you, it was the leftover chocolate chips from the last batch of brown sugar brownies that I found in the fridge, but still – it was chocolate.
Reason two – Laundry and Gary. This is still a (wonderful) thing.
Reason Three – He changed the oil in the truck today. Who knew this oil-changing thing was becoming a Valentine’s tradition?
Love is most certainly in the air around here!
It’s Valentine’s Day this week, and love is in the air! But the everlasting Love of God – So immense and free; more than life to me!
Now that’s Love!
How vast the everlasting love of God,
How sure and faithful as the morning.
This love so great for us could never fail
Nor end, for it had no beginning
CHORUS
O, the everlasting love of God,
It shall ever be my song
So immense and free; more than life to me!
The everlasting love of God
How strong the Father’s beating heart for us,
What mercy runs to meet the sinner.
As rivers yearn to reach the lowest place,
His grace shall flow to me for ever.
CHORUS
How great and precious my Redeemer’s blood,
How pure the passion of the Savior.
My sins are drowned beneath this mighty flood,
My soul is swept away with wonder
CHORUS
How deep the measure of the Spirit’s work
Who dwells in us, Who seals the promise
God’s love through time and all eternity
Shall stand and we shall stand upon it
What now could separate us from it
O, the everlasting love of God,
It shall ever be my song
So immense and free; more than life to me!
The everlasting love of God
The everlasting love of God.
Words and Music by Matt Papa, Matt Boswell and Matt Redman
It’s almost Valentine’s Day, so what better than a hymn that speaks of a Love That Will Not Let Me Go! This hymn was written by George Matheson in 1882, but these words ring true still today! May we always rest our weary souls in the LOVE that will not let us go!
This video features Keith and Kristyn Getty and Dana Masters. Praying you will be blessed!
O love that wilt not let me go
I rest my weary soul in thee
I give thee back the life I owe
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be
Oh light that followest all my way
I yield my flickering torch to thee
My heart restores its borrowed ray
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be
Oh joy that seekest me through pain
I dare not close my heart to thee
I trace the rainbow through the rain
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be
Oh cross that liftest up my head
I dare not ask to fly from thee
I lay in dust’s life’s glory dead
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be
Fifty years ago, on a warm Friday evening, these two youngsters committed their lives and their love to each other. My brother-in-law, Fitz, gave us a ‘charge – Gary & Stephanie, tonight is the beginning of a new way of life for both of you. Long awaited. No longer two separate individuals, but one family in Christ.
At 19 and 21 respectively, we thought we knew what marriage was all about. Ah, sweet innocent youth! Little did we know what we were in for! I’m not going to kid you – not every moment of the last 50 years was easy. Or fun. Some of it was downright hard. We raised three children, renovated a 100 year old house and owned a small service business (part American dream and part American nightmare.) But through all the years, through the good and the bad, the joy and the hard, the beauty and the ashes, God kept us together. He never gave up on us, and we never gave up on each other. Grace. His amazing grace is what has held us together these many years. And our prayer continues to be that His Grace will hold us fast in the years ahead!
Happy 50th to my beloved!
This might be our theme song –
And we went dancing in the minefields
We went sailing in the storms
And it was harder than we dreamed
But I believe that’s what the promise is for
Dancing in the Minefields (by Andrew Peterson)
Well, I was nineteen, you were twenty-one
The year we got engaged
And everyone said we were much too young
But we did it anyway
We got the rings for forty each
From a pawn shop down the road
We said our vows and took the leap
Now fifteen years ago
And we went dancing in the minefields
We went sailing in the storms
And it was harder than we dreamed
But I believe that’s what the promise is for
Well “I do” are the two most famous last words
The beginning of the end
But to lose your life for another, I’ve heard
Is a good place to begin
‘Cause the only way to find your life
Is to lay your own life down
And I believe it’s an easy price
For the life that we have found
And we’re dancing in the minefields
We’re sailing in the storms
This is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that’s what the promise is for
That’s what the promise is for
So when I lose my way, find me
When I lose love’s chains, bind me
At the end of all my faith, till the end of all my days
When I forget my name, remind me
‘Cause we bear the light of the Son of Man
So there’s nothing left to fear
So I’ll walk with you in the shadowlands
Till the shadows disappear
‘Cause he promised not to leave us
And his promises are true
So in the face of all this chaos
Baby, I can dance with you
So let’s go dancing in the minefields
Let’s go sailing in the storms
Oh, let’s go dancing in the minefields
And kicking down the doors
Oh, let’s go dancing in the minefields
And sailing in the storms
Oh, this is harder than we dreamed
But I believe that’s what the promise is for
That’s what the promise is for
