Valentine's Day roundup

I recently asked for a few romantic stories for Valentine’s Day. I got a number of responses.

David took up the challenge at Staypuff and posted the story of how he met his leading lady. Good to see that he’s planning on this Valentine’s Day being a little happier than some past years. What started as a friendship started to develop into something more. “Of course by this stage I was interested in her and I think she liked me too. I asked her if she would accompany me to a wedding of one of my friends, and she did, and was kind of our first real date by ourselves.” Smooth move taking someone to a wedding on a first date.

Shawna pointed me towards her post about her fiance proposing. She left a comment saying, “It wasn’t love at first sight at all when we met. He was just another guy I was working with.

After 9 months of working at a year round residential camp together we finally decided we were more than friends. (I think he decided this a few weeks before me and I definitely needed some convincing. I’m glad he convinced me though — its been worth it!!)” While Shawna may be romantic, she dosen’t buy into the whole Valentine’s Day thing. Check out her post on Cow Appreciation Day.

I really enjoyed Crofty’s comment. “I met my wife when we were both nurses at our local hospital. She was in charge of the ward but when I first arrived she was on holiday.

The staff spent two weeks bitching about the dragon in charge but when I saw her I fell for her straight away.

I suppose in our case our eyes met across a bed and the rest was history! See I mentioned bed and it wasn’t smutty.

Incidentally we celebrate twenty years in June.”

Barbara always has something interesting to say and so it was great to have her chime in on this one. “I have lots of romantic stories but the one that had the most impact was a “love at first sight”. I was 19, he was 25. I walked passed him, our eyes met, and that was it. It lasted only 6 months but was the most romantic relationship I’ve ever had – the whole thing was like scenes out of movies!

I don’t believe in love at first sight anymore – but I do believe that you can have such a strong attraction to a person that it would cause you to swim through shark infested waters to pursue the relationship because you believe that love is possible.

My latest love is an example of love at no sight – I have not met him in person, but I love him very much. He lives in Melbourne (yep he’s one of yours!) and we’ve been talking for 7 months. Its obviously complicated because of the distance and a few other things. But I firmly believe you can fall in love with someone through communicating. In some ways the way I feel about him is even more “real” because it hasn’t been affected by touching, kissing, etc. Once that enters the picture – ALL my senses fly out the window. This way, I know it’s the person I care for, not just the way he makes me feel or the physical attraction.”

Iris enjoys the simple displays of love. “Ingo sometimes leaves me notes where he emphasizes loving words inbetween words, making a sentence in the sentences that way. Or he watches “women-movies” with me. All the little stuff that makes it just big being together!” I know exactly what you mean. A simple word or a small thoughtful action has the ability to say so much.

Elsewhere around the blogosphere there’s some good Valentine’s reading. Joe from Evangelical Outpost has recycled his Valentine’s advice and it’s well worth the read.

James from Middo’s World reminded me of an old Joe Jackson song about Happy Loving Couples with his post about being single on the big day and his warning for couples to stay away from him.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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An atheist at church

Are there things that annoy you about church?

Friendly Atheist has just published a post titled, 20 Things That Christians Do in Church That Annoy Me. Hemant Mehta is an atheist who has visited many churches and he reflects on what he has experienced.

Go have a look at the post then tell me if you can understand where he’s coming from. Sadly, I’d have to say that while I can’t agree with all his points, I can relate to everything he’s saying.

I love the opportunity to get someone else’s point of view on what we do in church. I know that some Christians will be offended or simply dismiss his points completely but I think it’d be foolish to do so. If you think he’s misunderstood the intent behind some of the things he’s encountered at churches, maybe those of us who have been part of the church for a while are just not explaining ourselves well enough.

We need to ask ourselves if there are things on the list that give us a hint on why many churches find it hard to reach those without a church background. Church isn’t just about making people feel happy and welcome but if what we’re doing is stopping people from meeting Jesus, we’ve got to take a good look at what we’re doing.

Thanks to Phil Cooke for pointing out the post.

By the way, if you think he’s only sharing negative stuff about his experiences with churches you might like to read his post titled, 10 Things That Christians Are Better At Than Atheists. you’re not going to agree with all his points but they’re worth a look.

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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Origins of Valentine's Day

Who was Saint Valentine? Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Did you know that Saint Valentine was executed because he stood up for marriage and commitment?

My regular Wednesday morning guest on 98.5 Sonshine FM is Ross Clifford is the Principal of Morling College in New South Wales and current President of the Baptist Union of Australia. Each week we chat about a range of issues relating to spirituality and belief.

Today we discussed the origins of Valentine’s Day. We looked at how the tradition of exchanging Valentine’s Day cards began and what importance we should put on Valentine’s Day. We also talked about why it’s celebrated on the 14th of February.

During the discussion I talked about receiving thanks from a friend for the Valentine’s gift that I delivered to her door in the early hours of February the 14th around 20 years ago. Only problem was that I didn’t deliver it. It wasn’t from me. No matter how much I tried to convince her that it wasn’t me, she just smiled and continued to thank me. I still wonder to this day who the poor guy was that selected such a lovely gift, secretly delivered it, and then got no recognition for it at all.

If you’d like to hear our discussions about Valentine’s Day click here.

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