Valentine’s Day: More Than Chocolates and Roses
ghm-globaladminIt’s February.
Valentine’s Day looms.
The season of love.
I grab a trolley and enter the store; its windows plastered with pink and red hearts. My senses are immediately overwhelmed as I dodge curling ribbons hanging from helium balloons near the ceiling. Shelves overflow with chocolates of every description, and the aisles are crowded with buckets of red roses and every imaginable shade of pink.
I pass the bakery, where sugary delights tempt even the most die-hard health enthusiasts. Cakes, pies, and cupcakes-each decorated with hearts and pink sprinkles-fill the displays.
Shoppers bustle around me with excited chatter as they make their special purchases.
And yet… I’m not feeling it.
As I move through each aisle, gradually filling my cart, I become aware of a heavy cloud I can’t seem to shake. I know exactly what it is. The daily chaos spilling from the news-the anger, the fear, the constant loss of life. Without realizing it, I’ve allowed that noise to seep in and steal my joy.
Questions surface.
How can such a beautiful season be on full display?
How can we celebrate love when its opposite seems to dominate the world around us?
People are suffering. Lives are taken so casually. Innocent people endure unspeakable acts.
I stop, leaning over my cart, suddenly overcome by emotion. And in that moment, the most important words wash over my spirit-words I’m ashamed I had momentarily lost sight of:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
Almost immediately, another thought follows:
How can I use this season to honor the Lord for His unconditional, undeserved love?
I recall reading that giving to others offers real, measurable benefits-increased happiness, better health, stronger connections. Helping others reduces stress, isolation, anxiety, and depression.
So, in this season of love, I want to put forward a challenge.
What if we defied the noise and chose to love someone we may never meet-or a community we may never visit?
What if we helped provide clean water to a drought-stricken village on the other side of the world, where families dig daily for survival?
What if we ensured a family had food for an entire year?
Sent a child to school?
Stood beside someone walking through an especially difficult season?
These are true acts of love.
These are gestures that last far longer than balloons and roses.
You, too, can reach out with love. Simply email us at contactus@globalhumanitarianmission.org and we’d be honored to share how you can be part of our impactful programs – programs that help make the world a better place and truly reflect the spirit of love.
Because love is more than chocolates and roses.
