By Pastor Doug Stauffer
Another Valentine’s Day is just around the corner—February 14th. This day serves as a reminder to express our love for one another. In the U.S., roughly 190 million Valentine’s Day cards are exchanged each year, not including the hundreds of millions of cards school children swap. Valentine’s Day is a significant source of economic activity, with total expenditures equaling about $20 billion per year.
So, I thought I would help those who need a little push or some extra inspiration by offering some FREE quotes and quips. This might even help the post office to be a little less overwhelmed if you read them aloud to your special someone. First, the Bible: Husbands and wives are COMMANDED to love each other, because love is a choice we make, not a base emotion experience.
“Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (Ephesians 5:25). “The aged women … teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children” (Titus 2:3-4). The Bible expresses a love unequaled and unsurpassed, but sometimes people write some awesome things, too. Here are 10 that you can read aloud and not blush:
(1) “Thanks for being you and for being mine.” (2) “For you see, each day I love you more, today more than yesterday and less than tomorrow.” (3) “Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.” (4) “Love doesn’t make the world go ‘round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” (5) “Grow old along with me; the best is yet to be.” (6) “Love is a two-way street constantly under construction.” (7) “On a scale of one to ten, I’d give you a nine—and I’m the one you need.” (8) “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus a day so I never have to live without you.” (9) “Being someone’s first love may be great, but to be their last is beyond perfect.” (10) “A successful relationship requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.”
The book of Proverbs also says that a little humor is good for your heart. “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones” (Proverbs 17:22). So, see if these five make your heart smile:
(1) “I love being married. It’s so great to find one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.” (2) “Falling for him would be like cliff diving. It would be either the most exhilarating thing that ever happened to me or the stupidest mistake I’d ever make.” (3) “If you were a transformer, you’d be Optimus Fine.” (4) “Sometimes I wonder how you put up with me. Then I remember, oh I put up with you. So, we’re even.” (5) “What a lovely idea this Valentine’s Day is: to give people we love the pictures of our internal organs like the heart.”
Phyllis Diller and Dr. Seuss wrote some things about love, too. Guess who wrote which one of these? “Never go to bed mad. Stay up and fight.” AND “You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep, because reality is finally better than your dreams.”
Remember that love is a choice. So, no excuses. Go find somebody to love.
Dr. Doug Stauffer is pastor of Faith Independent Baptist Church. He was saved July 6, 1980, in Niceville, while stationed at the 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force Base and has now been in the ministry for over 35 years. He has written 20 books including the best selling “One Book” trilogy (“One Book Rightly Divided, One Book Stands Alone, One Book One Authority”); along with several devotionals (“Daily Strength” series); and prophecy books (“Reviving the Blessed Hope, When the End Begins”).
