Absolutely!

Hey, sweet sister! Happy Valentine's Day, to you, as well.

Thank you. I like them, too. I hope to do more once I have more time and can overcome a technological glitch. :)

I'm glad they have been an encouragement. May the Lord bless you and your family, as well!

marley taylor - I think this day causes a lot of unnecessary stress and tension for many couples, sadly. So I would love to see us look at the whole thing with new eyes. Yes, the origin of this holiday was pagan. I believe it is possible for people to celebrate it in ways that honor the Lord that don't involve anything pagan. But I also think this holiday, even as it is today (without the origins) can trip people up a lot. The real key boils down to our motives. It's so wonderful that Jesus sets us free from feeling bound to celebrating things the way the world says we should. And it's also wonderful that, if we choose to, we can make this day all about Him and blessing our husbands in many different ways. Thanks so much for sharing! Much love in Christ!

Deuteronomy 12 (KJV) ³⁰ Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. ³¹ Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods. ³² What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. Leviticus 20 (KJV) ²² Ye shall therefore keep all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: that the land, whither I bring you to dwell therein, spue you not out. ²³ And ye shall not walk in the manners of the nation, which I cast out before you: for they committed all these things, and therefore I abhorred them. ²⁴ But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth with milk and honey: I am the LORD your God, which have separated you from other people. Exodus 23:24 (KJV) “Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works: but thou shalt utterly overthrow them, and quite break down their images.” “Abstain from all appearance of evil.” - 1 Thessalonians 5:22 (KJV) Ephesians 5 (KJV) ⁶ Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. ⁷ Be not ye therefore partakers with them. ⁸ For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: ⁹ (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) ¹⁰ Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. ¹¹ And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. ¹² For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. ¹³ But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. ¹⁴ Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. “Now therefore fear the LORD, and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and in Egypt; and serve ye the LORD.” - Joshua 24:14 (KJV) These are just a few versus that stick out to me that show that we should not, as the bride of MESSIAH, be following after these man made and pagan traditions and in fact YHWH says he abhors it. He gives us feast days to celebrate HIM which are holy and set apart. We do not need to partake in these pagan holidays, whether we are doing the pagan parts or not, because in actuality the acknowledgement of the days of these celebrations at all is continuing and allowing in our lives, the pagan rituals that were once done to honor these false gods. Our God is the same God HE has been and always will be. We should not use or follow any pagan season or holiday to honor HIM because we are already supposed to be doing that everyday and we have HIS traditions and holidays to follow, and HE told us not to worship HIM as the pagans worship their gods. We should bless our husbands every day, and no different (or especially) on february 14th. We should be honoring our GOD each and every day and do not need the recognition of this pagan holiday, or any for that matter, to do so properly. I truly say all of this out of love for YHWH and for people. We have HIS word to follow for a reason and it is our duty to follow HIS commandments. May we all hate what HE hates and love what HE loves. We do herby know that we know HIM if we follow HIS commandments. GOD bless!! May peace and love be multiplied unto all!!

I totally agree that the Bride of Christ shouldn't celebrate anything pagan. If a Christian intends to honor a pagan god or worship anyone or anything on earth, that would be clear idolatry and sin. So if a Christian is praying to a pagan god/goddess, or doing rituals to honor a god/idol, or seeks to be worshipped, that is not okay for any believer. There are some who believe that if a holiday had pagan origins (like Valentine's Day, Christmas, or Easter), they should ever do anything special on that day. I honor those believers' decisions and convictions. There are others who believe that for the sake of those who have weak faith in Christ, they should not honor any holiday that had any link of any type to anything pagan ever, even if it no longer is about those old pagan things. I honor those believers' decisions and convictions, as well. There are others who believe they can redeem the day and not make it about anything relating to the origin but use it to glorify God. Many of them may not even be aware of the pagan origins. For example, some believers may seek to honor God by celebrating and honor love in marriage or love in family on Valentine's Day with no thought of anything pagan whatsoever but only pure motives to show love and appreciation to others. Giving a heart shaped box of chocolates to a loved one or friend on Feb. 14th is not a sin, in and of itself. Giving roses or going out to eat is not necessarily a sin, either. If believers are not sinning in God's sight but seeking to love and honor loved ones, I honor these believers' decisions and convictions. For example: I know one Christian woman who takes bouquets of flowers to a crisis pregnancy center on Valentine's Day with cards to share the gospel and to tell the women there that Jesus loves them. I think that is amazing! I know another who gives cards and cookies to widows on Feb. 14th just to let them know they are loved and not forgotten. I think with the right perspective, this day (and every day) can be a ministry opportunity. I believe this issue falls under Romans 14 principles involving personal conviction issues like eating meat that was offered to idols (which those with strong faith and weak faith viewed very differently) and treating certain days differently from others. The real issue is our motives and heart before the Lord. Another example: we worship Jesus at church on Sundays. The origin of the name of that day on our calendar was pagan worship of the sun. But we do not worship the sun when we go to church. We worship Jesus. Our motives and intentions matter. What the day symbolized to Anglo Saxons doesn't matter to us today as we know what it symbolizes to us as Christians. patch.com/georgia/athens/why-is-sunday-called-sunday Thanks for sharing your thoughts and concerns. I love your heart to seek to honor Christ. Much love, dear sister! Here is an article that may be a blessing as believers seek to discern how best to approach holidays that could have had pagan origin: www.gotquestions.org/Christian-holidays.html Romans 12: Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand. 5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10 You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister[a]? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. 11 It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will acknowledge God.’”[b] 12 So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God. 13 Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. 14 I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. 15 If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. 16 Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. 17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18 because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval. 19 Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20 Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21 It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall. 22 So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.[c]

@@AprilCassidy thank you for your thought and time you put in to this conversation, sister April. I love you dearly and bless and thank God for all HE has done to change our lives to magnify HIS glory. It is so wonderful that we can be saved through His grace by our faith in His Holy Son, for none of us are good. Thank you for sharing examples of how this day can be used to spread the gospel to women in shelters or widows. I do know that God knows our hearts and that we must not label something as sin for others if it is not specified in the bible as sin. However the celebration of these pagan holidays still seems to me as if we should not be doing them and that ELOHIM would love for us to spread HIS WORD every day and not to do special things that go along with traditions of other gods or gospels on these certain days or seasons that they have set apart (and not in a holy way). I come to this conclusion as i read Exodus. Exodus 32 (KJV) ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ² And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. ³ And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. ⁴ And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. ⁵ And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. ⁶ And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play. ⁷ And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: ⁸ They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. ⁹ And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: ¹⁰ Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. When they were worshipping the molten image their intentions were to worship the GOD of Israel, their Lord who had set them free. Much love, joy, peace, and kindness, to all!

Ha! Of course, it's fine to buy these things for loved ones if we can do so with loving motives. Chocolate is delicious. Flowers are beautiful. They can be lovely gifts. But if we use the company's advertising to judge our men's love for us and assume they don't love us if they don't buy certain gifts for us on this certain day... that's my concern. Thanks for sharing!