As Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching, Christians around the world are contemplating whether to participate in the celebration of Love. As with other Holidays, which do not surround themselves in religious ideologies many questions about the relevance of celebrating a holiday, associated with love and relationships are being asked. In many cultures, it is portrayed by giving expensive gifts, going to an expensive restaurant and even having extreme weddings. Valentine’s Day is definitely a holiday, which encourages spending a lot of money and showing off the material items purchased. In all reality, it does not have to be so superficial but can be a time to enjoy loved ones and teach others about love and relationship.
Valentine’s Day Relevance and the Christian Lifestyle
Should a Christian participate in the act of celebrating Valentine’s Day? The concern lies within the scope of spending, the idea of love and gratification, infatuation and just the excitement of having a sweetheart to spend the day. Getting lost in the shimmer and glamour of being pampered by the love of your life seems to feed the best of us. Feeling loved and appreciated should not be limited to just one day out of the year. The issue some Christians have with Valentine’s Day is the appearance of superficial love and the idea that this is all there is to love. Realizing there is much more to love then gifts and nice restaurants may be a shock to the most loving and giving on this day.
On Valentine’s Day, as a Christian, one could participate and even enjoy the excitement of a special outing to a nice restaurant and the purchasing of special gifts and cards. What really needs to be addressed is how this holiday can be used as a positive experience within one’s lifetime. One could use this time to educate or introduce their child or family member on the significance of loving someone and/or loving oneself. It could be an awesome opportunity to begin sharing the importance of developing a relationship and showing someone how much you care for them. Expressing to them that this type of behavior does not always have to be dedicated to one specific day of the year but should be expressed each day.
What can be accomplished in and around this holiday is the concept that the topic of love goes a lot deeper than just a day set aside for expressing one’s feelings for another person. New traditions can be made not only between couples who are dating or have been married for years but also with one’s children. Defining what true love is and determining what it means to a person, individually, would be something that could be carried throughout a lifetime. In addition, defining the issue of intimacy and infatuation and comparing the two could also shed some light on a very vague definition of love in our world today. Introducing concepts like commitment, long term relationships and happy ever after could influence the next generation that there can be good relationships that can last throughout a lifetime.
What our culture is missing is that love and commitment is something that takes more than one day a year to mature. It takes the understanding that intimacy, the relationship is taught, and this can be done by taking a popular secular holiday and using it to introduce to children of all ages about how great love actually is.
