Heart's Ease

I love the month of February. We celebrate some great things this month:

-Groundhog Day--have a supper of pancakes and sausage (ground hog, get it?)

- Washington and Lincoln's birthdays--make a lincoln log log cabin on your table for a centerpiece and serve cherry pie. Be sure to talk about these great presidents.

- Valentine's Day. Valentine's Day has always been one of my favorite holidays--a day set aside for showing love. Remember the white paper bag "mailboxes" you had in grade school to collect all your valentines? As you got older, you may have even received flowers from someone special. (I received a purple passion plant for Valentine's day once when I was at K-State--what a great combination of quirky and cool!)

This is the time to "wear your heart on your sleeve" and tell others how much you love them.

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."-Matthew6:20

Show others you "treasure" them this month. I am calling this blog Heart's Ease (I think it's a flower or an herbal potion,or maybe a quilt block--I just like the name) because all our hearts are eased when we know we are loved and treasured. Our hearts would be eased as well in expressing God's love to others.

How do you say,"I love You"? Cards are great, but we can be more creative than that!

Let Your Love Show

According to author Gary Smalley, everyone has a different "love language".

These are:

-Acts of Service. People with this love language feel loved when you do things for them.

-Gifts. These folks equate being loved with receiving gifts--they don't all have to be expensive, just little things that say you were thinking about them.

-Physical touch. Hugs, kisses, backrubs, holding hands.These people absorb love through their skin! If you have a "clingy"child, this may be their love language.

-Words of love, praise, and encouragement. Well,duh. You would think this would be everyone's love language, but not so. I tell my husband," I love you", but I'm not really speaking his language. He's more of an Acts of Service (making a lemon meringue pie) /Quality time kind of guy.

-Spending quality time together--these people feel loved just by having you around. Spending time together makes them feel loved, and puts their hearts at ease. One of my children was especially this way at bedtime. We read stories, sang songs, and then would sit on his bed to pray. He would hold our hands to prevent our leaving--at the time I figured he was just looking to prolong going to sleep, (and he probably was) but I also think he enjoyed having us to himself . This one still says "I love you" by making it a point to spend time with people.

There you have it. Work on becoming "fluent" in all these love languages. This makes for great supper table discussion and explains a lot in our relationships. The classic "you don't love me because you didn't ....." and the reply,"Of courseI love you,I did this...." Unfortunately, we often expect people to know what makes us feel loved and they do what makes them feel loved instead! Don't turn down love however it's offered to you!

Learn to say " I love you" in a foreign language.

Learn to say "I love you" in sign language.

Practice makes Perfect

Our family would draw names to be our secret valentine. For 3 or 4 days before Valentine's Day we would do "loving" things for the person whose name we had drawn. This is a great way to practice your love languages and teach creativity and even self-sacrifice. You may have to model/suggest ideas to young children. They can do a chore for the other person (acts of service),write a love note (words), leave a favorite kind of candy or gum (gifts), spend time playing with that person, etc. This can really be fun, and you don't want to get caught. You reveal who had which names on Valentine's Day. Again, this teaches kids to show love without spending a lot of money, but by being creative and attentive to another person instead. I still have some adorable "love notes" given to me, and one child spelled out "I Love You" on my desk using packing peanuts! Caution: girls usually love this, but most of the boys/men in our family would become pathetic whiners, "I never know what to do." You may need to be ready to "even up" the loving exchanges if someone has an unexpressive secret valentine.

Some Like It Hot--Red Hot

What would Valentine's Day be without jars of heart shaped red hots sitting around?Perish the thought. I give these out at AWANA when kids memorize Bible verses during this time.

Have an all-red dinner for Valentine'sDay. Serve red foods-red jello, spaghetti or chili, strawberry jelly on bread, fruitpunch, strawberries,etc. (If you're really brave, beets are a great red vegetable--or radishes!) Don't forget dessert: strawberry ice cream, cherry pie, red frosted cake or cookies. Be sure to wear red (or pink).

Love In A Jar . This is great to make for your husband/wife, grandparent,etc. Cut out hearts about 2" in size. Write on each heart something you love and appreciate about the person, fold and place in a clear glass jar. Tossing in a few Hershey kisses makes it even better! These love notes can be re-read over and over.

One last supper conversation topic. The French mathematician Blaise Pascal said that everyone has a God-shaped vacuum in their hearts that only He can fill. (In other words, we all have holes in our hearts that only God can fill) Talk about what this means and what happens if people don't fill that emptiness with God and even try to fill it with other things instead.

Be sure to put their hearts and yours at ease on this--God wants to fill all our hearts and He loves us more than we can ever imagine. And that, more than anything else, is worth celebrating this month...with your whole heart.