Valentine's Day

Do you remember when Valentine's Day was just another excuse to have a party in elementary school? Where you would take time to make that special mailbox and assign different valentines to your classmates?
Obviously, like any good elementary student, I loved Valentine's Day back then. Everyone got the same amount of Valentines and the same amount of candy. It was kind of communistic in a way... Apparently today's society has strayed away from that. (That could possibly be a good thing :) ).
But really. What is Valentine's Day to people now?
As far as I have heard...
1) There are plenty of people that dread it. (I am in that category).
2) There are the girls/guys who have dreampt (sp?) about the perfect valentine for years.
3) There are the brokenhearted ones who can't get their minds off of how things could have been...
4) There are the people who celebrate it because they have to.
5) And there are those who thoroughly enjoy it.

What ends up happening to all these groups of people?
1) They continue to hate it and the whole point of the day backfires as they get put in a bad mood.
2) They get let down and have to keep dreaming of that perfect day.
3) They just cry. All day long.
4) It ruins the point because its a forced action to a natural emotion. They are told they HAVE to show love this one day and do so out of obligation.
5) I guess they end up happy... Unless their day is ruined and then they fall into categories 2-4.

The original purpose of this holiday was to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia. (According to my relible source of Wikipedia :)). How ironic is it that a day originally put into place to end a demonic holiday... has turned into more of a pagan holiday. It isn't like we take time out of our Valentine's Day to worship God and show love to Christ.
The superficiality of this holiday takes the uniqueness and rarity out of the word love. Its ridiculous how overused that word is in our culture. There is no longer much meaning and intimateness behind it. (I do admit that I am guilty of overusing this word on more than one occation). Sometimes I wish that English had more than one word for love. In Hebrew... "LOVE" consists of three words. Ahava, Raya, and Dode. All combine to form the perfect love.
To me: Valentine's Day is not a good way to show a girl you love her. It is a good way to show obligation to her... But ask anyone. A girl would so much rather get flowers/chocolates/valentines on a random day of the year, rather than one where everyone else gets it.

Be unique. Don't overuse the word love. Show people you love them, instead of just doing it, ("Actions speak louder than words"- To be corny). Don't be pagan about this "holiday." Turn it into a chance to shine God's love to the rest of the world. Most importantly, love everyone, everyday. Not just on Valentine's Day. :)