St. Valentine and the Devil

Earlier tonight, I may have ruffled a few feathers earlier when I mentioned Satan and Valentine's Day in the same sentence. My original post was, "Valentine's may just be a holiday devised by Satan to destroy loving relationships..... I don't think I have ever had one that didn't start or end with a fight. Opinions? and even success stories are welcomed...." I'm not implying that Satan is responsible for Valentine's day or that celebrating Valentine's day some how invokes Satan. What I am saying is that we allow Satan to totally ambush and ruin our sweet Valentine's day. Everything that Hallmark tells us to expect is ruined by sin. We have to compete with our friends and wish that our husbands give us a Facebook worthy gift. We secretly (because of that devil on our shoulder) hope that we get a better, more expensive gift than that girl that has the Facebook perfect husband. This often turns into seeds of resentment or jealousy or envy in our own relationships. We resent the fact that our husbands only got us a box of drugstore chocolate when Facebook Fannie's husband got them a watch. We are jealous that Neighbor Nancy got earrings when all we got was a watch. We are envious that Perfect Patricia's husband got her a car when all we got was a night out on the town. The thing is that real husbands, real men, don't think about valentine's day. It slips up on them. They are too busy thinking about their wives every single day of the year. They are too busy making every day special to care about one single day. The other thing is that all those women with the fabulous gifts wish that they could spend one Thursday afternoon just talking to their husbands. They wish for once that their husband's would stop them in the midst of cooking and cleaning and tell them that they are beautiful and that they are loved. My point is that Satan takes every opportunity to seep into our lives and tell us that we aren't good enough, or pretty enough, or loved enough. Valentine's Day is an excellent opportunity for him to do just that. It's happened in my life before. It will almost assuredly happen again. In the meantime, I'm gonna focus on the fact that I am loved and cherished, even though he may not always have time to pick out the perfect card. I know he loves me and whether it be flowers or candy or a smack on the cheek I'm not gonna let Satan ruin those special moments in our marriage. I'm learning this one step at a time.... "Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in LOVE. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace." Eph. 4:2-3