Super Mom the Illusion: Love and Compassion--More Than Just A Day

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Love and Compassion--More Than Just A Day

According to History.com, while some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial, others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus. The unmarried women would put their names into an urn and bachelors in the town would draw names out of the urn. The matches often ended in marriage.

During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine's Day should be a day for romance.

But what about the love part?! The Bible tells us that "these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13). We also read that we are to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength" (Mark 12:30). Regardless of the supposed history of Valentine's Day, God our Heavenly Father is the original creator of love...He IS love!!

What a perfect example of loving others everyday, not just on one specific day of the year. Recently, I began following the Facebook page of a mom and her children. They created The Compassion Project on Facebook, and she and the children come up with amazing ways to show compassion to those in their town. Look around this family's Facebook page and see what they've done so far.