We're having a contest!
Thanks to Choosing Home for the inspiration and thanks to Rachel M. for submitting a fabulous idea for a "Valentines' Contest for the Unmarried." Just because you don't have a husband or beau, you can still celebrate Valentine's Day in a very meaningful way. Rachel wrote:
So, here are the details: You must be unmarried to participate in this contest and, to keep things simple, it is only open to unmarried females (not to discriminate against the unmarried males who read this blog -- if you want to have your own contest, you are free to sponsor it. :).As I read about the Valentine's Day contests, I was reminded of something that happened several years ago.
I had almost neglected to notice that it was Valentine's Day, being an unmarried daughter who has chosen to avoid traditional dating practices. But that afternoon, a friend a little older than I dropped by our house, explaining that she was on a mission to deliver miniature roses to all the unmarried girls she knew who are committed a courtship mindset (and thus wouldn't be receiving roses or cards from any guys). Even though I wasn't struggling with contentment that day, her special gift really blessed and encouraged me.
Just yesterday, I resolved to follow her example and do something to encourage other like-minded young ladies who are seeking to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to follow His ways. Perhaps you could initiate a contest with this goal.
Another idea: Maybe the unmarried daughters' contest could be to help married couples to celebrate Valentine's Day (ex., facilitate their parents' plans, offer to babysit for a couple with small children).
I think that with either of these, the goal would be to fulfill the instruction given in Hebrews 13:4 ~ "Marriage is to be held in honor among all."
To enter:
1. Write down how you, as an unmarried woman, are going to creatively celebrate Valentine's Day in a way that will encourage other young women, encourage married couples, or any other creative idea you have that will hold up marriage as honorable.
2. Submit this idea in a comment to this post, in a link to a comment on your blog, or email me biblicalwomanhood AT sbcglobal.net.
I will accept entries through February 15th, 2006. My husband and I will choose a Grand Prize winner from all entrants and the winner will receive:
-Two items of their choosing from our bookstore and a $15 gift certificate to any business/store/company/website of their choosing.
Pass the word along. I'd love to have the entries pouring in! Instead of Valentine's Day being a day of dreariness and sadness for those who are unmarried, let's make it an exciting day of blessing and encouragement. "It is more blessed to give, than to receive."
posted by Crystal Paine at 9:56 AM
14 Comments:
Well... my plans for Valentines day are to focus on showing my family love. -- I figure that I'll have plenty of years ahead with a Sweetie and that for the here and now I should make my family feel special. Because they are.
I'm going to get up and make Cinnamon Rolls for breakfast along with a Cafe Latte Slush for everyone -- this is everyone's favorite breakfast and reserved for special occassions only. :)
I'm making chicken spaghetti for supper with home-made bread, and green beans... another family favorite meal. Plus, a peppermint cheese-cake for dessert. That's sure to get plenty of smiles since cheesecake is pretty much an all time favorite. :)
I'm planning on writing a blog post also to encourage other single young ladies... and that about sums up my plans for the day.
I love it, Olivia! Thanks for sharing!
Don't be shy, everyone else. Pipe up and share yours as well -- even if you don't think it's very good. :)
ooh, peppermint cheesecake! Could you share the recipe?
I have always loved to celebrate St. Valentine's Day with the Church!
Valentine's Day is, in Christian reality, an ecclesial feast day of thanksgiving for the witness of Valentinus, a wealthy Roman in the early Church. The story goes that as a Christian householder, he allowed his slaves to have Christian marriage ceremonies, in contravention of the Roman law. When this fact was discovered, Valentinus' married Christian slaves were condemned to die in the arena. However, Valentinus pleaded with the authorites to allow him to die in their place. On the day of his death, legend has it that he left a heart drawn outside the slaves' cell in the Colliseum to signify his love for them as his brethren in Christ.
Valentinus is celebrated as a faithful martyr and exmplar of Christian love. So on his feast day, I love to go to a beautiful church or chapel for an hour of prayer just between me and my Savior. I give thanks especially for the example of sacrifical love in Valentinus' life, and ask for the grace to emulate it.
Then I lolve to go out for a great dinner with my girl friends...
I am married with one child at home. We are a homeschooling family. This year is different for us, because my husband has received a promotion, which entails traveling. He won't be home this Valentine's Day. So- rather than moping around (not our style), we decided to minister to the ladies of our church that don't have plans for that evening.
Our 12 yo dd (a courtship girl) and I will have a girl's night in, and all the ladies w/o other plans are welcome. We're going to have pizza and snacks and chocolate desserts- and either games or a fun movie. I'm hoping to find some inexpensive keepsakes or make little rememberances for the ladies to take home. OUr hope is that everyone will feel edified and the Lord blessed by this get together.
Thanks for listening- Danielle
I have a fun tradition that I do every Valentine's Day:
I only allow myself 1 bubble bath a year, so I go ALL OUT on Valentine's. Candles everywhere, dim lights, sweet bubble bath, and classical music where I just relax. When I get out I wrap myself in a thick bathrobe, and give myself a manicure/pedicure while eating ice cream and watching a chic flick.
That night before I go to bed I read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, write a letter to my future husband, and make him a Valentine. Then I pray for him.
That's my Valentine's tradition. :)
Crystal,
I love your idea of doing this for the unmarrried girls! I am going to participate for sure! =)
Blessings,
Samantha
Wow, this is really very neat.
My family and I have always celebrated Valentine's by making each other little notes of "I love you" and thanks.
My thoughts go out to my parents, the most. They have done SSOO much for me as parents... a mother or father is more than what the word means. Personally, I am honoured to be their daughter and admire them exceedingly for their profound faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, besides the fact that they chose to "go against the flow" and raise my seven siblings and I. They have borne the grief and sadness of being looked down upon just because they chose to follow the Lord's leading and bear as many children as God so chose (chooses :-).
I am blessed, to say the least, to have such a loving, caring, graceful, merciful, kind father and mother to be there when I needed them most or when I needed some advice.
So this Valentine's Day, I hope to do something similar to what Olivia said she'd be doing. On a strictly tight budget right now, we can't do much, but I know the thought is all that matters. So I might make up little heart notes that says something special about that person, as well as serve hot (decaf! :-) coffee and herbal tea which everyone loves.
As for encouraging other young women who are rather in the "same boat" so to speak, I hope to send a rose petal to each of my pen pals, and then write out something for the couples that I know. We babysit for Christian homeschooling families, so I hope to offer our services for that night, for no pay, so that they can go out and make memories.
Most of all, I will write another love letter to my darling, precious Saviour up above. The fact that He died for ME and MY sins is, in a very practical sense, unbearable. May the Lord truly be praised, for ever and ever!!
Love and Blessings,
Christy
im a single, single parent.... according to the bible that he is my husband... so i want to celebrate my valentine with my lover which is my God and my husband too, through prayers , thanksgiving, pRAISE AND worship, adoration and meditation in his word. and most specially offering my body to him as my living sacrifice holy and acceptable to him... thats how i will celebrate my valentine !!! God blesss
Thank you for the great idea! I didn't really have any plans and thought the day would pass by as an
ordinary one. But you have inspired me to make the day one of acts of kindness, service, and well...showing my love!
I came up with a theme of Past, Present, and Future. Meaning those who have raised families in the past, those who are presently raising families, and those who hope to raise families in the future. The
latter of course, meaning us who are unmarried.
PAST:
I want to show my gratitude to all the older people in my life who have been such great godly examples of true love. Particulary my great-grandparents who just celebrated their 62nd anniversary.
And a lady who is like a grandmother to me. I plan on making cards to send to them and tell them of
how thankful I am for them and encouraged by their examples of people still in love after all these
years. I am also proud of them and the way they raised their families to glorify God.
PRESENT:
That means my family! And at the center of my family is my parents. I want them to know how much I love and appreciate them. I am going to make a nice card and write them a letter to give them. I want them to know how happy I am that they raised us the way they did, how they didn't back down when relatives didn't support them, and they stuck it out during some rough times. When I have my own family, Lord willing, I want to follow the example they have set before me. My parents probably won't be going out to dinner, because we can't afford those type of luxuries right now. So I think that I am going to make a nice chinese food dinner with lemon chicken and egg rolls as that is something our whole family loves. I decided that my two youngest siblings would probably enjoy making and decorating some heart shaped cookies with me. I would also like to make a little card or note for each of my siblings telling how much I love them and what I appreciate about them and maybe some special little memory.
FUTURE:
Since I don't have many local friends nor do I currently attend a church, I have decided to make and
send cards and send virtual flowers (http://www.800florals.com/virtual/) to my single girl friends. I want them to know that they are not alone and encourage them to pursue God to fill their needs and desires when they feel disheartened. I am also going to enclose a piece of poetry I wrote.
The last thing I am going to do is write a letter to my future (unknown) husband, letting him know that I am saving my whole heart for him and how I am honoring him before we are married.
Other ideas:
1.You can make a scrapbook page(s) for your parents with pictures from their courtship/dates and wedding.
2. Do a framed wall hanging of your family with individual pictures cut in nice shapes. Use paper or fabric for the background. Embellish with heart stickers, stamps, or quotes on love, Bible verses etc.
My mom did this one year on Valentine's for us and I thought it was really neat and came out nice.
3. If your parents can't get away for the evening, maybe they could have their own little table set up
outside on the deck or in another room. You could decorate it realy nice with candles and soft music
playing and serve them dinner.
4. Get all your siblings involved on a surprise for your parents. Working together on something for
them is sure to be meaningful. A lot of times my younger siblings have such creative ideas that I would have never thought of.
5. Maybe you know a woman who lost her husband recently and might be feeling down this Valentine's Day. Perhaps you could spend some time with her, have a tea or luncheon, make a special dessert. Or take her somewhere for the day. You could even include her in your family's
activities for the day. Invite her to dinner.
~Jaclynn
P.S I thought Aja's idea of the tea party for her sisters was great, that is so sweet of her to do that, they are really blessed to have a sister like her.
That last comment is me, Jaclynn
I am celebrating Valentine's Day by: 1. Making Valentines for my family with little promises in them like "I will read a book to you every day for a whole month" or "I will make your bed for two weeks". 2.Doing a Bible search on purity and send the results to my girlfriends. 3.We will be having my older sister over with the 96 year old woman she takes care of this evening. 4. Finishing writing a song for my future husband and pray for him. I will also pray for myself that I will be a good, Godly, submissive wife and thank Jesus for loving me and dying on the cross for all my sins. 5. Probably babysitting my neighbor's grandaughter while the grandma and mother take their husbands out on a dinner date sometime this week. 6. Encouraging my siblings and myself to go to bed ASAP so Mom and Dad can spend time together. 7. Wearing a modest red shirt to celebrate the day and having my hair in rag curlers (I only do that for special occasions). 8. Saying "Happy Valentine's Day!! Jesus loves you!" to people as I help my mother while grocery shopping.
"Keep yourself pure." 1 Tim. 5:22
Valentine's Day can be made a
very special day if you decide to carry the real meaning of love in your heart-
1 Cor. 13:4-7
"Love is PATIENT, love is KIND, and is not JEALOUS; love does NOT BRAG and IS NOT ARROGANT,
does NOT ACT UNBECOMINGLY, it does NOT SEEK IT'S OWN, is NOT PROVOKED, does NOT take into account WRONG SUFFERED, does NOT rejoice in UNRIGHTEOUSNESS, but REJOICES WITH THE TRUTH;
BEARS ALL THINGS, BELIEVES ALL THINGS, HOPES ALL THINGS. ENDURES ALL THINGS.
LOVE NEVER FAILS!
Today we can...
Love.
We can love how GOD commands, not how the world commands.
Today we can...
Be PATIENT and KIND with our brothers and sisters. How can we include them, giving them all of our love?
My sister and I are the oldest in the family, and we both thought it would be very special to think of a clever way to answer the phone
with our siblings included...
When the phone rings our brother starts singing, "HAPPY VALENTINE"S DAY!" another child comes an octave higher, "VALENTINE'S DAY." and another child another octave higher, "VALENTINE"S DAY."
It ends in beautiful harmony, and the smiles are many-
Today we can-
Without BRAGGING or being ARROGANT, we can bring (or mail!)
special Valentine's to those who need GOD'S love.
I had all of the children in my family quilt hearts to give to others.
We embroidered "God is love" and "Jesus Saves" on some hearts, and sewed buttons on others.
This afternoon we are going to give some of the quilted hearts to our neighbors, and have mailed many of them off.
Today...
Love ENDURES ALL THINGS...
Even living without a sweetheart!!
But we TODAY we can...
BEAR ALL THINGS, through Christ, and leave an example of a cheerful, unmarried woman enjoying this day when she can love her family and her Father in Heaven-
Who is the TRUEST sweetheart you will ever find.
~LOVE NEVER FAILS~
After reading your post about the contest, I was very excited about it. I told my mom about it, and she thought it was a great idea too. But this evening I was sitting talking with her, and I couldn't think of anything I'd done to make to today special! She then told me somethings that I hadn't thought about.
One of the things (I think probably on the marriage line) was that I made a collage of some pictures from Mom and Dad over the years. They have been married 20 years, and this was their 20th Valentine's together.
Another thing that Mom pointed out was that I had thought to send flowers to one of my maiden aunts at the school where she worked. We ended up getting a dozen red roses for her.(She ended up calling us twice to tell us how much it meant to her.)
I sent some E-valentines to some of my very dear single-sisters-in-the-Lord that I had made.
Before tonight's over I'll probably end getting my Dad a big bowl of vanilla ice cream with strawberries and kiss.
Happy Valentine's!
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