my favorite valentine's day

I've always liked the idea of Valentine's Day, but, let's face it. When you don't have a date, it just sucks. End of story.

But if I ever get a little down around Single's Awareness Day, I always remember my best Valentine's Day and it never fails to lift my mood.

I was in middle school and in that awkward phase where I felt anything but desirable. Oh braces and bad perms, how vividly you are etched in my memory. Anyway, it was Valentine's Day, the day when all the pretty girls got carnations delivered to them in homeroom by their latest crush. To get flowers from even the most unnattractive boy was a big deal.

So the day went on and I watched as all my friends got their own beautiful, highly coveted flowers. I could only wish that I was cute enough to get a flower from a boy.

I must have said something along those lines to my friend, Hilary, because she shrugged and said, "Here, you can have my flower". And proceeded to hand me the ugliest carnation I have ever seen. The petals were so dead they were black, and (I kid you not) there was a spider web inside of it. But I can't tell you how ecstatic I was to have my very own flower to carry around for the rest of the day! It completely turned my day around because, well, it doesn't take much to make me happy.

Sometime later in the day, a girl looked at my rather lackluster flower and said, "You should take that to the office to see if you can trade that in for a better flower; I think they still have a few left over". So I marched up to the office and asked the secretary for another flower.

"Here," she said, pulling out a tub of beautiful pink carnations, "you can have them all if you want. We were just going to throw them away, anyway".

I could barely contain my excitement as I walked back to class with an armful of big, beautiful carnations. The other girls all had one, but I had a whole bouquet! And, don't worry, I gave one back to Hilary.

I just loved it because it was a reminder that even though I felt awkward and gawky, God thought I was beautiful and loved me enough to give me all those flowers to prove it. Isn't that so like Him? Knowing just how much God loves me is the greatest Valentine I could ever recieve, and I mean that in the most un-cheesy way possible.


I hope you have a fabulous Valentine's Day!

xo
heather