Valentine's Day: Words of Affirmation

If you look in the right-hand margin, you'll see that my first blog post was in 2007, my last was in 2014, and I was most active in 2008 & 2009.  I had a lot of fun, but then Facebook became easy to use, and I let the blog fizzle out.  This past week a blog post came up in my Facebook memories about a Valentine's Day during a deployment entitled V-day stands for Video Teleconferencing!

It turns out my husband is deployed again now, and I emailed him the blog post because I thought it was funny that I didn't remember any of the details I had written 12 years ago.  He didn't either, and I commented that it makes me want to blog again.  His response was "Oh, you'd make me so happy if you started that backup." My heart swelled with happiness as I read that!

And I guess that's because words matter, don't they?  They matter on Valentine's Day, and they also matter all the other days of the year. Perhaps my love language is words of affirmation, but even if yours is not, scripture tells us how important words are...

Proverbs 16:24 "Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body."

Matthew 4:4 "But he [Jesus] answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "

Matthew 4:4 teaches us that the source of the words matter.  If someone I don't care too much about flatters me, it doesn't have the same effect as someone whose words I value.  And I value my husband's words.  He's the writer of the family.  I have blogged as a hobby, but he writes books.  You can read his latest book, Saving Ebenezer, here...it's really good.  Since I know he is a good writer AND it matters to me what he thinks, that one sentence made my day!

So guess what I'm doing?  I'm starting my blog back up!  Many things have changed in 12 years: we have added a 3rd child to the family, and she's 8!  My oldest is about to be an adult, which is bringing entirely new thoughts and feelings to my life.  We have moved 4 times since then, we live in a different state, and it won't be too long before we transition from military life to civilian life.  But one thing has not changed...God's WORD.  He is the true Source of all wisdom and love...His words matter most, and they are applicable to anything we are going through.  

I'm excited about our future experiences that I'll write about, forget about, and be reminded of 10 years down the line!  And even when my writing doesn't stack up against someone else's, I'm going to know that my husband is glad I'm doing it.  And perhaps the Valentine's Day gift I can give him is making sure he knows that I listen to him and receive his words of affirmation.  I love you, honey.

Happy Valentine's Day!