february mops craft and devotion

last night was our mops meeting. we had the pastor of our host church share about respecting the men in our lives in honor of valentine's day. for the craft we made a 'love note' station - complete with pen (thanks to kellie for the idea). and i was also up for the devotion (steering team takes turns); here is roughly what i shared:

Every Valentine’s Day I think that I need to look up the story of the holiday, but never do.  Until this year. The problem is that there were a lot of different versions. I know that we are past Valentine’s Day, but I think that there is still parts of his story that are a good lesson in loving. Funning enough, the verse this story brought me to was also the reading for Good Morning Girls this morning. I guess God really wanted me to share it tonight!               

The story goes that St. Valentine was a Roman Priest in Ireland when an emperor persecuted the church and prohibited the marriage of young people. The emperor believed that married soldiers might be afraid to die because of responsibilities of wife and family. This was also a time when polygamy would have been very popular.

The church thought that marriage was very sacred between one man and one woman for their whole life, and that it should be encouraged. That is where Valentine comes in - he was secretly marrying young couples because he felt it was an act that honored God. He was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against the emperor’s command. He was beat, stoned and decapitated for uniting couples in Christian marriage. It goes that he signed his last words “from your Valentine.”

Another story goes that he was so beloved by the children of the village that they wrote him notes of love - inspiring the exchange of valentines.

And I found two stories of him having a role in the healing of a blind child and sending them a note about Jesus’ love with a treat.

These stories made me feel a lot better about the almost 100 valentines I just suffered through having my three oldest children sign! Valentine’s Day is the recognition of someone who loved God and others enough to risk - and lose - his life.

John 15:12-13 “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

I hope that this is the kind of love we bring to our children, our marriages and our friendships. The love of Jesus. This is not a love earned or out of fair treatment - far from it.  It is the love we are freely given by God and commanded to show to others. 

I think it is fair to say that we would lay down our lives for our children without much of a second thought, but can we lay down our pride or our ego to respect the men in our lives? Or then in-laws? Or any of the other people who have a role in our children’s life?

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you for our time here tonight. I am so thankful for the women in this room and their desire to know you and support each other. Please bless our conversation tonight with Pastor Kip and Lora as we learn more about how to support the men in our lives. Open our hearts to hear what you have for us. In Jesus name, Amen.