As a homeschooled kid, I didn’t have classmates. Well, I had Sunday school classmates, but Valentine’s Day doesn’t usually fall on a weekend, so I didn’t have anyone with whom to exchange Valentine’s Day cards or candies. That’s where my mom came in.

One Valentine’s Day in particular that I remember, she made a heart shaped construction paper card for my brother and one for me . . . complete with hand-drawn connect-the-dots puzzles and Valentine’s themed word searches. I don’t know about you, but that memory is a lot sweeter than my memories of the occasional wallet-sized Valentine with My Little Pony or superheroes on them that the kids in my homeschool group would hand out if we had a get together planned near Valentine’s Day. My mom made us something meaningful. Something — brace yourself for the unavoidable pun — from the heart.

That’s what I love about Valentine’s Day. Not the candy. Not the often-over-the-top-sappy cards. It’s just a good opportunity, commercialism aside, to remind the person/people you love most just how much you love him/her/them.

But that’s why Valentine’s Day shouldn’t feel so special. Because we should be creating opportunities to make people feel incredibly loved. It shouldn’t take a national holiday that overruns our grocery stores with heart-shaped cutouts to remind us of that.

It might be a little bit ridiculous how much Danny and I tell each other that we love each other — I mean, at some point you’d think we know the other person loves us, right? We do. We absolutely do. It’s just that hearing it over and over reaffirms it to the point that there’s no way to question it. We live each day reminded just how much we are loved, whether it’s Valentine’s Day or not.

Be a little ridiculous. Tell the person/people you love most just how much you love him/her/them. Say it often. Live it out loud. Every day.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

~ Laura