St. Valentine, Trampled?

Is real love under attack? Is this a cultural hit-and-run?

Of the accounts of the three historical men named, "Valentine," the one that I like most is the one who risked his life--and lost it--in order to marry young men to the women that they wanted to start families with. From what I've read, the Roman Emperor Claudius II thought that single young men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, so he forbid the marriage of young couples. Valentine obviously knew that this was an injustice, and married couples secretly, but when the Romans found out, they killed him.

So why mention all this now?  What does this have to do with us today?  What does the title of this post mean?  Who is trampling the kind of love that we should be celebrating on Valentine's Day?  What kind of love should we celebrate on Valentine's Day, anyways?  Good questions, but let's think about them in another blog.  For now, suffice it to say that the culture we live in is trampling--driving right over--every form of love that has an ounce of purity in it.

I say all this not to leave you with a sorrowful heart on Valentine's Day, but so that you will celebrate Valentine's Day in a way that will not leave you grasping a fistful of regrets later on.

Happy Valentine's Day.  Happy, that is.  Not promiscuous, but happy.  Not divorcing or breaking up, but celebrating the fact that real love overcomes struggles, because real love forgives, and speaks the truth in an environment of unmistakable love.