Love Notes, my thoughts at Valentine’s

 

 

Last summer I took several love notes that Tim gave me over the years and arranged them in a large frame and added a title at the top called Love Notes.  I put the framed notes on the wall next to my bed so every morning I would see his words of love and encouragement. 

 

Likewise, there are a few love notes from my children hanging on the doors of the armoire that holds our computer.  One from several years ago reads, “a little boy love his mom his mom is super and fun.”   Another reads, “Mom is a Butterfly” decorated with a pink smiling butterfly.  

 

In my toothbrush drawer in my bathroom is a long letter sent to me from a busy mother of nine that took the time to write me last year.  It’s really a love note too. I keep it there to read on days when I feel like going back to bed because I’m overwhelmed or lack passion.

 

At my homeschooling desk, I keep a card from a friend who always makes me laugh and is always having fun with her kids. The card is humorous about some lady with a tampon behind her ear, but the handwritten part is a love note.  The card reminds me while I’m doing school to stay light and fun. 

 

I have a few handwritten notes from my dad.  He used to write them weekly when I was a little girl and put them in my lunch bag.  Sometimes he would write them on my napkin.  I always felt weird wiping my mouth on those love notes.  Unfortunately, I was a silly girl and didn’t keep any of them from my childhood but have a few from adulthood.  I have a love note at my sewing table written on yellow tablet paper in unmistakable scribble that my brain recognizes instantly as daddy.

 

Love notes, lasting little messages that hold encouragement, comfort, hope and intimacy.   Images made with pen and ink that wash away the dust of everyday life. I really never noticed until today that I had positioned all the little bits of love all over my house.  Strategically placing love where I needed it most; ever-present in my day.

 

For the past few weeks, we (as a family) have been memorizing I Corinthians 13, more commonly known as the Love Chapter.  While memorizing the verses I found myself meditating on them and looking at my own life. I started to think about my responsibility to love others and more specifically how I can reflect God’s love to others.

 

My answer came in simple words: in little things.  Love is given with a smile, a nod, a thank you; a love note here, a kind word there.  Television, politics and society at large have forsaken kindness in exchange for sarcasm, love for lust, and civility for disrespectfulness. They need some of God’s Love Notes shared from us. 

 

So my corny Valentine challenge to you is, when you go through the fast food drive-through find something nice to say to that person – something besides “thank you”.  Think of something that would make them go home and say, “A customer said the nicest thing to me today.”   Make eye contact with the mom in the store with the screaming toddler and say something encouraging.  Compliment your waitress at lunch.  The next time someone runs down a friend or co-worker find something nice to say.  Take the time to send that note to a friend in need. Sing Happy Birthday in public very loud to a friend (yes, I did that). Write that note you have been putting off and make the visit you have been meaning to get around to. However you do it, send the love notes.  Let them be scattered ever-present throughout our days, providing comfort, hope, love and encouragement.

 

I Corinthians 13:1-8

 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.