This past Sunday our Simple Church talked about John 3.1-21.  If you’ve been a follower of Christ very long (or not so long) you know that these verses encompass the famous John 3.16.  You can find this verse at many sports games being waved somewhere close to the goal post or free throw line.  Any case the verse speaks of God’s love for us.  It actually reads that “God so loved the world that He gave…”  The scripture says a lot more but I want to stop here, because giving is the ultimate language of love.

I think this thought is appropriate for this previous weekend.  Valentine’s Day was this weekend and if you have a significant someone than you probably celebrated some act of love (1 Cor 13).  But I don’t believe there is any act of love greater than the act of giving.  And in a world that evolves around two economies: time and money.  It’s the giving of time that can have no equal.

I bring these two economies up because this weekend I realized how much I truly love my girls (wife: Summer and daughter: Tatum).  They are the most important people in my life on earth and I can not conceive of loving anyone more.  So when I gave time to be with them in two venues of entertainment and found myself asking, “What I’m I doing?” I quickly recognize I’m loving my girls in the moment and showing them how much I love them by giving myself.  So what did I do with them?

Saturday night I watched “Confessions of a Shopaholic” with Summer.  If you know me that was torture!  The joy I found was hearing my wife laugh out loud and pull me close during the “mushy” parts.  I’m not a big teen movie buff (I can hear Summer now saying it wasn’t a teen movie, but if felt like one), I prefer action and story depth.

Sunday night we went downtown as a family to watch Sesame Street Live: Elmo’s Green Thumb.  Now this was not actually bad.  It felt kinda cool with all the families and the joy of watching children light up with the characters walked on stage.  When I was a child you couldn’t tear a stuffed Grover doll from my little hands.  He was in every picture.  So there was a bit of joy when I saw him take the stage.  However, it took Tatum about five songs before she released the death hug on her mother’s neck and watch the show facing forward. By the end all we could hear Tatum saying was “Where Elmo?”

I actually loved my Valentine’s Day because of the joy my girls gave me.