Next Friday is Valentine’s Day. I like it when my column is published several days ahead of Valentine’s Day because I fantasize that there is some guy or gal that has forgotten that the great day for lovers is less than a week away. And, just perhaps, my column can give him/her a wake-up call and “save his/her bacon.” 

This celebration of human love had its origin in a priest named “Father Valentine” who lived in Rome in the middle of the third century. The Emperor Claudius was waging war and young married men were refusing to join Claudius’ army on the grounds that young married men were exempted from war (Deuteronomy 24:5). To increase the pool of potential soldiers, the Emperor passed a law forbidding marriage. Well, Father Valentine, the friend of young love, officiated the sacrament of marriage anyway. For the crime of performing marriage ceremonies, Father Valentine was placed in prison and executed February 14, 269 A.D. On the day before he died, the priest wrote a thank you note to the daughter of the prison guard who had befriended him, bringing food and flowers to his dungeon cell. He signed the note, “Love from your Valentine.” And that is how it all got started. Two hundred plus years later, in 496 A.D. Pope Gelasius set aside February 14, as a holiday to honor St. Valentine.

Gradually, February 14 became the date for exchanging love messages and St. Valentine became the patron saint of lovers. It was not until the 1800's that the sending of love messages on Valentine’s Day became custom in the United States.

Janell and I are going to do something different this Valentine’s. Two of our granddaughters are coming to visit for the Valentine’s weekend - they have a school holiday on Monday. I am ordering flowers for them and their grandmother and will take them to eat where I took their grandmother on our first anniversary - 45 years ago. At the table Janell and I will tell our love story to our progeny. Then I am going to take them out to the ETBU campus and show them the shadows where I would steal a kiss while walking their grandmother from her dorm to the library.

You may think that no one would be interested in your love story, but, trust me, your children and grandchildren are VERY interested in how you fell in love, dated and decided to get married. They are interested in your early life together. Make plans to share this part of your life with those who love you and whom you love.

You have got five days to plan something special for the day we set aside for lovers - Valentine’s Day. Go ahead, get hoppin’!