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The Valentine Misconception

Feb 13, 2015, 10:21 AM

Another time is just around the corner for our people, especially young girls and boys, to be exposed to all kinds of odd affairs under the guise of Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day, which has a different meaning and reasons for being, has today been adulterated and turned into something else.

While Valentine’s Day is meant for people, especially married couples, to demonstrate the true love of God by sharing gifts with one another and showing forgiveness and concern for others, these purposes have been defeated, and the whole idea gone haywire.

This day has been totally misconceived in the society that our young ones, especially the female gender, suffer most of the consequences of its negative effects such as sexual abuse and exploitation during this great celebration.

Many use this medium to deceive their parents with false excuses to find a way out of the house on Valentine’s Day to engage in illicit sexual acts or parties detrimental to their lives and future.

However, it is time for society to work to change this perception of Valentine’s Day, to teach our children the right thing and protect our future leaders from destroying their future, as well as send our nation many steps backward.

We should all stand up against this misconception of the true essence of Valentine’s Day and work together to correct it.

Valentine, as has been repeatedly stated by many people who have done thorough research on it, “is not and can never be a social nor worldly idea or event as people assume it to be.”

Valentine means celebrating true love of God; therefore, all and sundry are urged to celebrate Valentine everyday by continually showing the true love of God to the people around us, especially the rejected, the lonely, and the sick at home or in the hospital, the widows, the prisoners, the orphans, vulnerable children and every other child around us.

Married couples should renew and strengthen their love on such a great day.

Parents should teach their children to love and fear God and encourage them to always demonstrate the love of God to one another at all times.

We should know that St. Valentine, a priest in Roman Catholic Church, after whom the day or occasion was named in 495 AD, to be held on 14 February each year , had real love for God and mankind and gave from his heart all he had to assist the poor, needy, widows, orphans and vulnerable children in the Roman Empire.

So let’s do likewise rather than otherwise.

“A heart is not judged by how much you love, but by how much you are loved by others.”

Frank Morgan