Hello fabulous people!

Valentine is here again and for so long I pondered on what to write, perhaps a love story of some sort. Finally, I decided not to go with the traditional love story of ‘boy meets girl, boy likes girl, boy buys girl gifts on Valentine’s day’. Now you may wonder what I have to write that won’t be the classic love story. Okay here it is:

Remember how there’s this beautiful commandment to love God first and love others ‘as you love yourself’? My emphasis today is on loving yourself. You cannot effectively love that spouse, lover, parent, sibling, colleague…without loving yourself first.

I have spent several Valentine’s days, being moody because I was single. I would throw huge pity parties for myself the whole day; probably shut myself from seeing other lovers exchange gifts (pathetic, I know). It always felt like Cupid’s arrow kept missing target (me) on purpose. I’d angrily burst balloons that lined the hallways. I would listen to my ‘sad playlist’ and sing along while taking some ice cream for the pain. I’m a hopeless romantic but then I was more of ‘hopeless’ than romantic. This went on and on for years till the light dawned on me. Maybe Cupid kept skipping me because I barely loved me enough to love others.

Love ultimately flows from the one who is Love himself, and that’s God. This love was clearly shown in the gory death of His son for a bunch of messed up humans who didn’t care about Him. Personally, I have struggled with the concept of loving people who don’t care about me. I have often limited my container of love to my family and friends because I feel it wouldn’t be enough to go round. But when I look at the work on the cross, the selfishness disappears. I love God because He ‘asked me out first’ even when I had no makeup on. As a result of my love for Him, my container of love overflows to people who don’t care about me or even hate me.

I can spend all day writing about the love of God which I am so fond of, but I think I should leave that for another post. I’ll rather try and stick to the subject of loving yourself so you can love your neighbour (friend, lover, parent, colleague, course mate, classmate…) a whole lot better. However, bear in mind that you can’t truly love without knowing Love (God).

Love is beautiful. I love ‘love’, I love watching fairytales come true. But most people limit love to a romantic relationship, when there’s so much more! And even in the romantic relationships, I find some as being pretty much parasitic in that the boy gives the gifts on Valentine’s Day while the girl receives it with a huge grin across her face (or in some cases, a frown- she obviously wanted a wristwatch not a flower- LOL),  and she skedaddles afterwards. I begin to wonder how I’d love my neighbour as myself and not get them thoughtful gifts (as I always get for myself).

I want you to choose to love yourself from today onward. Spoil yourself with gifts, go to those sites you always wanted to, have fun, be happy, get the pair of shoes you’ve always wanted to have, buy that new perfume you wanted to try out, celebrate those in love, eat your favourite meal, play that keyboard or guitar you’ve allowed dust to coat for so long, take in the scent of the flowers, do what makes you happy, hug yourself, go for that soothing massage, celebrate life! When you start living life with so much love for yourself, you would be able to show love to your neighbour with ease.

Challenge for the day; as you pick out a gift for your loved ones, pick as you would pick for yourself. And don’t wallow in self-pity if you are alone on Val’s day, buy a gift for yourself, you deserve something new! As always, I want you to live a victorious life.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!

~M.