Today (just another day) is finally here!!!

Today is the day!! It’s finally here..I’ve been anxious for it to get here for nearly 365 days now when I first adopted the “idea”…

Over the past year, since last Valentine’s Day 2017 I’ve been preparing something..and I finally used it as a gift today!! I wrapped it up and placed it down in a cute little heart covered bag with red tissue gushing out the top.

Can I just be the first to say I’m actually not a huge Valentine’s Day fan, like I don’t feel it’s necessary to have a set day devoted to “love.” I believe love should be shown any day of the year and not amplified on one particular day such as Valentine’s Day.

To me it seems like a juvenile holiday, one that highschool sweethearts who’ve been dating three or four weeks might get excited about…you know the ‘love-struck’ boyfriend or girlfriend who’s too nervous to tell their ‘special someone’ those three little words that are packed with huge meaning, ‘I love you’. So instead they pick up some cheap chocolate candies, maybe a fuzzy teddy bear clasping a heart, and if allowance allows they throw in a rose or two and of course anxiously scrawl the letters ‘xoxo’ across a card hoping it will speak the words for them and get the point across..and then they wait for the next two months for February 14th to finally arrive…you know what I’m talking about…

Okay soooo if I’m not head over heels about this overrated ‘love day’ why have I been looking forward to it for an entire year now?

Because last year at this time I read a devotion from a man who shared about a journal he had kept. Not just any kind of journal—this journal was written in everyday for a full year and would eventually serve as a Christmas gift—journal entries filled with encouragement and thankfulness to his wife…an idea he had picked up from someone else…

When the year ended the husband presented the gift to his wife who upon opening it was almost livid to see that it was a journal entry book, she had no desire to write and keep a journal and her husband knew it, how could he give her such a book…but as she examined the cover further she saw it was stamped with the previous year and when she turned open those pages to see his words of love written all over, tears ran down her cheeks…She was surprised that even on her worst days her husband had found something nice to say.

But he had….

In the devotion I read, this man shared that as he wrote he’d pray every morning asking God to help him come up with something new to say each time. He never wanted to thank or compliment his wife for the same thing even five times for the chance of it losing its power. At times especially nearing the end of the year it became more challenging, so he’d sit before God and ask Him to remind him of ‘something his wife had done, or how she is’ that maybe he’d taken for granted, and each time God faithfully answered prayer so that eventually the journal was completed—365 days worth of uplifting ‘love notes.’

By now you can surely guess the gift in my sweetly packaged Valentine’s bag today…after reading this story last year it pulled at my heartstrings and I felt drawn to do the same for my spouse so I borrowed the idea and started a daily journal for my husband right away.

Beginning each day (since last Valentine’s) I’ve written an entry thanking Nathan for something he does or telling him what I admire about him.

Sometimes when I’d sit down to write, I’d have a list of things to cover the next few weeks, other times I’d ask God to help me recognize and reveal something new about my husband, never pointing out areas that could be improved and never asking God to change him but only to show me his good character qualities. It taught me to focus on Nathan in a new positive healthy way.

To take it a step further I included a Bible verse to pair up with the journal topic which reconfirmed to me how pertinent it is to include God in our relationship. And on our children’s birthdays I allowed them to write a piece of the journal entry with me.

Just a few months into writing I was already getting excited to show Nathan the journal but I knew if I was this excited at the time how much more exciting and meaningful would it be if I kept it going for a full year and surprised him later so I continued to keep it as a surprise.

My daily journal entries also never really focused on a particular day or time spent together over the past year, because I didn’t want it to be limited to a reflection of 2017. Rather my goal was to have each entry resemble fresh insight, compliments, and gratefulness so that my husband can read the words in a way that encourages him to be a loving son, husband, father, brother, and friend year after year.

So even though I don’t ‘love’ Valentine’s Day, this year it felt good to acknowledge and ‘promote’ it, in a way that portrays the kind of husband/wife love that should be celebrated daily. 

My heart is thankful beyond measure to have this marriage Jesus has sweetly blessed….and yes ladies (and men) my husband was 100% grateful and satisfied receiving that heartfelt journal this morning..more so than if I would have went out and purchased him a Springfield Armory M1A with a year’s supply of ammo..I’m just sure of it!!

Right Sugar?;)

Applicable verses:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. Ephesians 5:24