Lenton Love.

Valentine’s Day.  Lent.

The two do go hand-in-hand, even though it doesn’t always feel like it. 

I mean, true love is full of things that lent embodies--sacrifice and joy.  Some singles hate Valentine’s Day, but I don’t.  Sure, it was rough in college to see engaged couples and now it’s rough to see all my friends having children, but who could hate love?  Could I hate the display of good and loving relationships?  And I know I’m loved very well by amazing friends and family.  The relationships in my life are so rich and overflowing with blessings and kindness and uplifting words and dinners and coffees, so I’m not too worried about not getting roses, however lovely that may be.  True love isn’t looking to receive, it’s looking to give.

Lent is about denying oneself.  It is remembering that the greatest love the world has ever known did not come without sacrifice. 

Sometimes I wonder about God and wonder how he loves us.  As I see new parents with their babies, I realize children are a gift in so many ways—the clearest way is just how we love them for the miracle they are.  How their little cries for someone to change their diapers and feed them bring parents running and cooing.  I think of how helpless babies are and dependent on someone stronger, aware, protective, nurturing.  Their little cries, “give me today my daily milk!”

Their helplessness is what makes them so precious.  Their nuzzling and noises are the best. 

When I think of this kind of love, it’s just impossible to feel sorry for myself.    I could only do that if I were looking inward and then I see all that is lacking in me and it’s easy to be hopeless.  But when I think about the sweet love of sacrifice, I realize that there is very little I’m lacking—that I have been loved perfectly by my Heavenly Father.  From learning that kind of love, I am capable of loving others well even if I’m not dating or married.  The problem with marriage in America is that everyone is looking to be served and have their needs met, forgetting that the sacrament of marriage is for our own refining and self-denial as much as it is for anything.  So as I patiently wait for my turn for these things, I wait actively practicing love.