Mark 12:29-31

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. And that means LOVE!   Valentine’s Day is all about the ooey–gooey romantic type of love. And that’s all fine and good. I love romance as much as the next person.

But God calls us to love one another–every day all day!

And who are we to love?

This verse tells us to love our neighbors. And who are our neighbors? We know from the story of the Good Samaritan that our neighbors are all people, not just the ones who live next door. Another verse tells us to love our enemies. That’s a tough one, but with God’s help, we can do that as well.

But, do you know who often gets the least of our love?

It’s the people we love the most–our family.

We take them for granted.

We’re too busy to do the extra things for them.

They know we love them–even if we don’t always show it, right?

Love should begin at home, but so often we forget that. We’re kind and polite to others when we’re out and about, but don’t bother to make the effort at home.  So what if your spouse and/or your children  aren’t perfect! Neither are we, but we want to feel special in spite of that. We want them to make the effort to make us feel good about ourselves.

And our family wants the same thing. Take a little extra time and effort to make them feel good, to make them feel loved.  I’m not saying it will be easy. I’m not saying that because you do it for them, they will reciprocate. (But I hope they will.) But God calls us to love one another and that includes our family.

So let’s not forget about showing them love, not just on Valentine’s Day but every day.