Sweet Valentine

We had a really sweet Valentine's day. God gave us many chances to love each other and others, and to reflect on His love for us too. We have been doing a "Love One Another" exercise that I found on my friend's blog (click here to see it for next year...). On the back of each of the hearts is something that we can do to love others. So we had been talking A LOT about loving others - we love because He first loved us, let all that you do be done in love, through love serve one another, etc etc.

God gave us a very precious gift on valentine's day in the form of a broken down car. Not ours, thankfully! We were on our way to a Valentine's breakfast at our favorite bagel shop (what is a holiday with out bagels?!) and we noticed that some people had broken down in the middle of the road and the cars were slowly passing by. As we passed we realized that they were some friends from church. We pulled over long enough for Matt to jump out and I circled back and parked behind their cars. Long story short, Matt and a police officer who came along were able to help them jump start their car. INSIDE OUR CAR we were able to see in action all that we have been talking about. We had to sacrifice hungry tummies and time together to serve these friends. God gave us a very clear chance to respond to the love He has given us by loving this couple ON VALENTINE'S DAY of all days. It was so great! All of the other activities we had done were good and taught us a lot, (vacuuming the car for daddy, helping mommy clean the school room, bringing a treat to a friend who was sick, etc) but this one was not just something I thought of that would fit in our day well, it was straight from the Lord and the boys could see it!

The other sweet part was this great dress that a friend gave to Lucy. It is the kind of thing I wouldn't have bought myself - so it was a real treat!