Love is...

So with Valentine's Day around the corner, I have been doing some thinking.  Justin and I don't really celebrate Valentine's Day. Not because we think its evil, but because I dunno... we try to make showing our love for each other something we do through out the year.  And candy and flowers (while nice) is not love. Love works hard, love pays the bills, love takes care of you when you are sick etc.

But while thinking about VD and what to do with Inara, I remembered reading this post by Mark Driscoll around Christmas time.  We wanted to redeem Christmas, and after talking with Justin that's what we will be doing to with VD.  When we did the Truth in the Tinsel with Inara it was super great!  Inara loved making the ornaments. She has remembered some of the stories that go with the ornaments and has talked about it a lot lately.

Soooo, Justin and I sat down tonight to get some ideas and I am SUPER DUPER excited. We really wanted to show Inara what TRUE love is. So we went to scripture to 1 Corinthians 13.  Coincidentally there are 15 qualities of what love is/does. So every day from now until February 16th (when we will have our family Valentine's Day party), we will read some scripture and make a little craft. And I'll be writing the full verse out a big piece of poster board today.  I am super excited for the verses we picked out and some of the crafts we are doing....so without further adieu....

LOVE IS PATIENT:

Verse

Psalm 145:8- The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.

Craft

I seriously just drew some hearts on a paper, we colored, and TRIED to add some other stuff...but I honestly just don't have a lot of crafty stuff

Inara coloring the heart

Inara really liked "hanging" the ornaments at Christmas,
so we are hanging our crafts on our door. *Please
disregard the hideous fountain in the back yard*

Apply

Inara (like us all) has a problem being patient when she gets frustrated with someone/something. She will hit said person, or throw object of frustration.  We just talked about what being patient is, how God is patient towards us, and how she can grow in patience.  PRAY! She has since walked around all morning saying "Love is patient"....its awesome!

I am really excited about doing this with her and sharing more of Christ with her. I already have the days/crafts planned out, so if you are interested let me know and I'll email you the list.  So how will you redeem Valentine's Day? Even if you don't have kiddos, just think about it. What is love? TRUE love?