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Greetings!

Deborah Wuehler and family

Some of us celebrate Valentine's Day and some of us don't--and that's okay.

Either way; however, we can take this day and spend a good chunk of time talking about and demonstrating the love of God with our children. Without God's love, and knowing the God of that love, there is no point to life here and life eternal. I don't care if my kids know the history of Valentine's Day as long as they know the history of God's love for them.

Take the day with the kids and discuss how you can show love to each other or to work together making a special night for dad. Teach them to stop looking for love, but start looking for those they can love. If we are made in God's image, we are made to be love givers. (Read and study First John, Chapter 4 together.)

Going out on a date with your spouse may not be an option in your home this Valentine's Day, or even this season in your family. Instead of resenting what you don't have, make the best of what you do have. Enjoy the night in with your family and play games or have a movie night. Maybe make it a worship night and sing together all the songs talking about the love of God.

Enjoy your husband and children whether you get to go out or not. Love is not always a romantic feeling or fancy atmosphere. And for some seasons in your life, it is a roll-up-your-sleeves commitment to work and stand together and face the world, the flesh, and the devil as you raise, protect, and shelter your children--while they are Home Where They Belong.

~Deborah

TOS Senior Editor

SeniorEditor@TheHomeschoolMagazine.com  

P.S. I will be speaking next week on loving that homeschool dad. How do you love someone you don't agree with, or you think needs better standards, or someone who doesn't lead in family devotions or help with the homeschooling? How do you love someone you might not even like anymore? My talk is titled, "The Death of Love." Sign up now for the FREE Schoolhouse EXPO, next Thursday the 21st. Seats limited. 

Diana Waring

Relational Homeschooling

www.DianaWaring.com 

Dear Friends,

Since I know that Deborah, Todd, Hal and Melanie are all going to give you FABULOUS tips about having great fun on Valentine's Day, I'm going to detour and tell you a story.

You love stories, don't you? Especially those feel-good stories, where everything turns out just right? Well, I have one of those. It's a historic story, too. It's not, however, history with a capital "H"--you know, nothing about the Wild West or Queen Victoria or Marco Polo--but, rather, one of those little stories out there that gives us the tiniest glimpse into God's marvelous workings in the lives of us little people.

As it turns out, the story is my own. And, it concerns Valentine's Day.

Ready? Here we go.

Once upon a time, in the year 1979, as a college graduate, I was living with a host family while fulfilling a year-long internship with a college Christian fellowship. This host family, open and hospitable to all, made each one present feel like a significant part of the family's celebrations. Whether Thanksgiving, Christmas, or even Valentine's Day, you were welcomed and integrated into the "doings."

I had been there since August, so I had learned the holiday rules: include everyone in the celebration! That is why, when purchasing Valentine's Day cards for the family, I grabbed an extra one for a visitor.

Bill Waring was one of my oldest and dearest friends from college days. He had been like a brother to me, and we had often enjoyed chatting about what God was doing in our lives.  We never dated--never even thought about dating--we were just friends. Now, in 1979, this old friend was visiting my host family on Valentine's Day. So, following the family protocol, I duly purchased, signed, and presented a card to him, just as I did for the other folks in the family. It was all in great fun and celebration of a family holiday.

Thirty-four years later, I've forgotten the other five cards.  But I still remember quite distinctly Bill's card.On the front, there was a picture of a cat awkwardly balancing with one paw on a ball. There was nothing even remotely romantic about the cat (or else I would NEVER have chosen it). But there was something which would prove to be practically prophetic about the message inside. "How can you resist such cuteness and talent?"

Practically prophetic, you ask? Well, yes.

A few weeks later, after four years of being good friends, of not seeing each other as potential date-fodder, of not being concerned to say goodbye at the end of college and never see each other again, Bill and I suddenly fell in love--the extremely-happily-married-for-nearly-thirty-four-years kind of love, the gift of God kind of love.

Strange, but true. As I look back, part of God's design for my life was momentarily visible, seen unexpectedly through a humorous and silly card.

To celebrate that, on February 14 of every year, I give him a homemade rendition of that very first Valentine card.

Remember, stay relational!

Diana

P.S. If you signed up for my newsletter, be sure to OPEN the one sent February 12, so you can receive the link to your free gift on Valentine's Day!!

Raising Real Men

www.RaisingRealMen.com

Hal & Melanie Young

Heart-shaped cookies, sweet valentines, roses, red, and romance. It's a holiday that doesn't have much native appeal to boys, even with cookies as incentive, but there are some important things we need to communicate to our young men.

Marriage is in trouble in our culture. In 1960, 84% of working class American adults were married, now it's less than half. More than half of babies born today to women under 30 are born out of wedlock. We're losing the whole Biblical concept of marriage as one man married to one woman producing Godly children. Even among those who still marry, the average age of first marriage has increased from 22 to 28 for young men in the last generation. The culture is changing--and not in a good way. One thing we can do about that is to actively and intentionally teach our children about marriage.

Our boys, particularly, need to take to heart God's view of marriage as good ("He who finds a wife finds a good thing, And obtains favor from the Lord." Proverbs 18:22 NKJV). They need to understand that children are a blessing ("Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, The fruit of the womb is a reward." Psalm 127:3 NKJV). They need to know a Christian should only marry another Christian (1 Corinthians 5:14-15 NKJV). Even more than these, our guys need to realize that marrying a wife and having children together is a way they can be used by God to grow His kingdom and influence future generations ("Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, So are the children of one's youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them . . ." Psalm 127:4-5a NKJV). Valentine's Day is a good time to bring up these principles.

We're not talking about giving your children a dry lecture, but why not teach while you're doing the fun Valentine's Day projects? Talk about how your marriage was the founding of their family. Show them the video from your wedding. Talk about why you married one another and what the Lord has done through your marriage. Discuss how you go about finding the right mate--and when.

Valentine's Day, and wedding anniversaries, are times we naturally think about love and marriage. Let's inspire our guys to be countercultural in this area and value marriage as God does, as a picture to the world of the relationship between Christ and the church. After all, we want grandchildren, don't you?

Yours in the battle,

Hal & Melanie

P.S. It's a great time to focus on your own marriage, too! You can now download our new workshop, My Beloved and My Friend: Making Marriage Even Better, and our workshop on dealing with the challenges of homeschooling, Strengthening the Homeschool Marriage. Find them here.

We're also very excited to announce that we now have recordings of our Marriage Retreat Online available for purchase! Click here to check it out!

And if you live in Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Saskatchewan, or Illinois, we may be speaking in your area this month. See our events here.

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