what is not love: a valentine special

I'm not going to lie to you, valentines. This is how I started out this day:Bitter, party of one, your table is ready!

Yes that's right - I'll admit right here on the world wide web that as I was on the elliptical at the YMCA this morning, I skipped every song with the word love in it as it came up on my cute little red IPod Nano which was set on shuffle. Only when I got caught up watching "Chocolate Masterpieces" on the food network did I lose my song-skipping gusto and I missed one! So I ended up listening to "What is not love" by Derek Webb. As I marveled at the guy who was sculpting Michaelangelo's David out of a big hunk of white chocolate, my attention was snapped back to what I was listening to, and I heard something I really needed to.

The lyrics go something like this: "but I give myself to what looks like love/I sell myself for what feels like love/and I pay to get what is not love/and all just because I see things upside down."

All I could hear was this small voice telling me that I was seeing things upside down. I'm not quite comfortable saying that God tells me things, but if I was, I would say that it was my gracious Father reminding me of all the ways that my vision is blurred. So I started thinking about what it might mean to spend some time seeing things right side up. And that's what I'm going to focus on. Sure, valentine's day isn't my favorite holiday, but I can't so much complain about a day that reiterates how well I am loved by the people in my life, can I? I can't help but think of God's love for us, too, and how it must pain him to watch us give ourselves to things that are not love, and how it must please him when we begin to see things through God's eyes and not our own.

When I see things right side up, I enjoy my wonderful (and really funny) friends, I smell my pretty flowers (and appreciate the joy of the overly cheerful deliverer of said flowers), I get to help people dress for their dates tonight (or just get over the fact that they don't have a date my spending exorbitant amounts of money) (can you tell I have to work this afternoon? :)). I love the people who are important to me (I am lucky because there are so many!) and I can receive love from thosewho love me. Not to mention, I am a much nicer person to be around.

You heard it here first... Bitter Betty has left the building! happy love day!