This post is dedicated to my Susan, my beautiful bride.

Susan, I love you! Thank you for being who God made you to be. I cannot imagine my life without you. Because of you, I am better. Happy Valentine's Day.

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Today, I want to encourage anyone reading this to feel free to push back at the celebration of the shallow and fleeting version of ‘love’ that is sold to us by those who do not fully understand the kind of love that was long ago defined by God himself as the ‘mingling of souls.’ 

Celebrate instead the kind of love that lasts, is true, and is free from all selfishness and relational greed. Let’s instead celebrate the kind of love that causes a man and woman to endure through the darkest days of their lives together-not as two individuals struggling to get what they want out of another human being-but as one combined soul that has been knit together by choice and by covenant. The kind of love that-once the euphoric buzz of youthful lust has long faded-chooses, as a matter of will, to persist, to bear with, to commit to, to long after, and to serve the one it has promised itself to. 

It is one thing to plant a garden; it is altogether a different thing to cultivate and care for that garden... Anyone can plant a garden and say, ‘Look at what I’ve done!’ But it’s only the diligent few that can come back years later and find nourishment for themselves-and others-from that same garden. 

Today, fix your thoughts on the work of cultivating, because in the end, that’s where you’ll find the kind of relationship you’re looking for. 

Watch your back, Cupid. We're on to you.