I am not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day…my husband calls it a “Hallmark Holiday” as in one that was invented to boost sales in the inevitable February sales slump that most businesses face.  I think his cynicism has rubbed off on me a bit.  I can’t say I blame those who benefit from and love the holiday and it is fun now that we have children but we love each other everyday…we don’t need a holiday to celebrate that.  This year, however, I have been challenged to do something a little different.

In the second session of our “Intimacy in Marriage” class in our small group at church the speaker challenged us that in the next 4 weeks to work on one area of intimacy in our marriage everyday.  We are to write that on a plain 3 by 5 card and place it in a plain white envelope and write “To: Nathan, From: Jennifer with Love”, seal it and give it to them on Valentine’s Day.  The hardest part is not to tell your spouse what you are working on!  It could be one of the fruits of the spirit “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23) or it could be what our instructor called the “Intimacy Bank account” where if you frequently make emotional “withdrawals” to work on making “deposits” instead.  We all know what areas we need to work on and the Lord placed a BIG one on my heart and I will say I need to depend on Him to help me work on it everyday for the next 4 weeks.

Who knows…maybe after this exercise I will feel differently about Valentine’s Day!  What I really hope it will do is teach me to be a better wife because Nathan certainly deserves that…he’s the best!