Okay, now is the time for me to admit that I stink at this whole blogging thing! This post was supposed to go up on 2/14, in honor of Valentine’s Day (and the fact that we were in the 14th week of giving), but after returning from a long weekend, I realize it never made it beyond my draft folder, so this week you get a two-fer 🙂 Admittedly, this message would have been much cuter last week, but I will post it today anyway, and tomorrow I will post the new message for this week! And maybe one of these days I will figure out how to properly use the “publish on a specific date/time” function! Anyway, Happy Belated Valentine’s Day all and see you back here tomorrow!

Message from 2/14:

Happy Valentine’s Day! Whether you are a person who absolutely LOVES this day, a person who despises this day, or a person who sits atop the fence not caring one way or the other, I think we can all agree that this world can use just a little more love.

Did you know that the Greeks use different words to describe different kinds of love? In English, we use (and often overuse) the world love to describe almost anything we have any positive feeling toward—hopefully our love for pizza is MUCH different than our love for our own children. Now, when I say that Valentine’s Day should be a time when we should think more about showing love toward others, I’m not talking about the romantic, gushy kind of love—the word éros in Greek—rather, I am speaking of the brotherly, care-for-one-another kind of love—the word philia in Greek.

So, put away those chocolates and roses! In honor of this day of love, February 14, and the fact that it happens to fall during  our 14th week in our journey, I have put together 14 simple ways for you to go out and share some philia with those around you. Enjoy, and again, Happy Valentine’s Day!

1. Pay someone a sincere compliment
2. Let someone merge ahead of you in traffic
3. Wave thank you to someone who lets you merge in traffic
4. Write a handwritten note to someone you haven’t spoken with in awhile
5. Return your shopping cart to the cart return…better yet, take it back inside the store
6. Leave a close-in parking spot open for someone else
7. Hold a door open for someone behind you
8. Smile at someone
9. Keep a box of granola bars and/or a case of bottled water with you in your car—give a snack to a homeless person begging on the corner.
10. Pick up litter and throw it in a garbage can.
11. Give a teacher/secretary/boss/friend/whomever a gift on a non-holiday…just because
12. Do an unpleasant chore for someone else (anyone want to clean out my fridge? Lol!)
13. Let someone with fewer items to purchase go ahead of you in a checkout line.
14. Tell someone who looks frazzled on the job that he/she is doing a great job.

If you have any more ideas, feel free to share them here too! God Bless!!