God uses challenging people to make us better disciples and, through us, shows the world another way to respond. Other people’s negative behavior isn’t an excuse to forget in whose footsteps we follow.

We either love or despise Valentine’s Day. The modern culture seduces us into believing we need lavish romance, decadent chocolates, expensive bouquets, and most importantly tall-dark-and-handsome Prince Charmings to woo us into bliss! We are set up to be disappointed with unrealistic expectations of ourselves and our partners, and of course we know that forced love is never true anyway. We can and should celebrate love and even romance, but what does that look like?