Valentine’s Love Challenge

Hey Jill Leitner! You are the winner of the weekend’s giveaway. Email your home address to my assistant Kim at [email protected] right away. Congrats!

Valentine’s is coming bringing with it lots of talk about love.

But is it genuine love?

The love the Bible describes?

Here is a fun idea we did when our kids were smaller to teach them about love. It is also great for older kids and even adults. It helps you both catch and encourage those exhibiting the true qualities of love.

Here is how it is done:

Read the “love chapter” of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13, aloud as a family. Talk about the characteristics of love and how you as a family can display them to each other in the days ahead.

Then, generate a copy, written by hand or on the computer, of a portion of this well-known chapter (verses 4 through 8a) but wherever the word “love” appears or is referred to, leave a blank.

Hang it on your refrigerator or in another prominent place in your home.

Then, whenever anyone in your house catches someone else in the family exhibiting that particular characteristic of love, write that person’s name in the blank.

Maybe your son really wanted to rent a particular movie but decided you should watch the one his sister desired instead. Yay! Put his name where it says “______ does not insist on its own way”

Get it?

On Valentine’s Day, gather the family to enjoy a Valentine’s treat (like this or another I’ll post later this week). Remove the certificate and read it out loud.

The result will be something like this:

Lydia is patient. Matthew is kind. Dad does not envy . . .”

Here is a sample based off of the ESV version of the Bible:

________ is patient and ________ is kind; ______ does not envy and ______ does not boast; ______ is not arrogant and ______ is not rude. ______ does not insist on its own way; ______ is not irritable and _____ is not resentful; _____ does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ______ bears all things, ______ believes all things, _______ hopes all things, ______endures all things.

Love never ends!!!

(If you like this idea, you’ll find many more in my book, co-authored with Trish Smith and Kelly Hovermale, Homespun Memories for the Heart.)

photo credit

4 Comments

  1. I love this idea so much. I retyped it and sent it to many friends with a link to your blog. I just wanted you to know how much your idea will bless lots of families this February. Thank you very much!

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