I received this response to the last post, The month of love ~.  Here is what one reader had to say about it.   

“Mrs Peggy, I know you love to hear back from your blog readers, and I figured in an act of love I would respond to your latest blog.

“I do not have a good relationship with Valentine’s Day . . . I don’t enjoy the forcing of being romantic, spending time trying to live up to unreasonable expectations, and the ultimate disappointment when everything doesn’t meet those expectations. . . . It drives me insane that every little girl dreams of “chick flick” life, and that is just amplified as she gets older, especially around Valentine’s Day.

“To me love is so much deeper than flowers and chocolates.  It represents seeking others first, encouraging them, disciplining them, praying for them.  [It] is much more than a marriage relationship. Friends, family, co-workers all need and deserve love. 

“My goal last year was to change and this year my goal is to love on the ladies around me so they too can change and be joyful.

“So many of us try to reach ridiculous goals, be perfect inside and out, [try to] out do other ladies we love in our lives, and in turn loose who we are as women and loose our joy.  Hence, Valentine’s Day comes and is supposed to change all of that and when it doesn’t the vicious circle continues.

This reader put in personal-experience words what I was trying to say. The pressure to be and do according to certain standards set by media, people around us, family, and friends can sap our joy and actually get us off the path God has planned.

Instead of living to please and glorify Him, we try to please everyone else by making ourselves into something we are not. I have been there – done that – bought the T-shirt – sold it at the yard sale.

I am much more at peace with myself and my God when I am following His lead and being the woman He has made me to be. And therein lies joy and the life to the full Jesus promised.