Exploding Cupid

I'm not your typical girl. I don't like the typical girly things. No pink, lace, or bling for me, thank you very much. I know nothing about fashion. I couldn't tell a Louis Vuitton handbag from a Coach bag if my life depended on it. And forget shoes. I'm happiest in my $2 flip-flops from the Wal-mart. I don't enjoy sappy movies or romance novels. You'll not find Nicholas Sparks on my bookshelves. And, I hate Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is the antithesis of me. As I already mentioned, I don't really dig pink or mushy-sappy stuff. I certainly don't think we should let babies fly around half-naked while shooting arrows at unsuspecting victims.

I get the feeling that when it comes to Valentine's Day, I am in the minority. Perhaps that's not 100% true. I don't know. Here's what I do know though... my boys are enough to make me want to make my house look like cupid exploded. Literally. And yes, I do know what that looks like as my college buddy decided to explode a cupid in my dorm room simply because she knew I hated Valentine's Day. But I digress.

Each Valentine's Day since 2006 (that was my older son's first Valentine's Day) I have ventured out and purchased heart-shaped balloons, pink and red streamers, cheesy heart necklaces and other such nonsense. I did so simply because I knew my son, who, by the way, happens to love pink, would smile.

Isn't it funny the things we do for our children that we never thought we'd ever do? I've caught vomit in my hands, cleaned up the nastiest diapers imaginable, allowed my children to eat Cheerios that fell on the floor... three days prior, taken my child to the Wal-mart while he was wearing a Batman costume and cowboy boots and, I have fallen prey to every imaginable Hallmark holiday out there.

Those are all relatively small sacrifices that we, as moms, make regularly. We do so just to make our children smile, to let them know they are loved and to encourage them to spread their wings just a bit to explore what they do and don't like.

While these little things may not come across really as sacrifices at all, they are still evidence that we are dying to ourselves in an effort to help our children grow into Godly men and women. And that is ultimately glorifying God. Serving our children by doing things with which we may not naturally be comfortable with allows them to see what serving another person looks like. Getting out of our comfort zones to explore new things allows them to know that it's okay to try new things.

So, while I'm still not thrilled about the whole flying-baby-shooting-darts thing, I am okay with doing Valentine's Day for my sons. That's doubly true if doing something as silly as exploding a cupid in my house lets them know that I love them more than they can imagine.