I have never been a fan of Valentine's Day, and I never will be. I'm rejecting all its practices and social obligations (although if you want to buy me chocolate I wouldn't complain). I do this not because I don't have a "significant other" to spend it with, but because I find no reason for it. I believe it is a useless holiday, invented by card, chocolate, and flower companies in order to make more money.

Why is there a holiday devoted to telling those you love that you love them? Why is there a special day for that? Just in case people forget to tell someone how much they love them all the other 364 days of the year? If you truly love someone, you won't need a special day to tell them. You will continually show them you love them. In whatever future relationship I may theoretically find myself getting into, I don't want my boyfriend to buy me things on Valentine's Day. He can if he wants, but I won't be offended if he doesn't. Because, here's the thing--I'd rather he buy me chocolates because it's Tuesday and he was thinking about me on his way home from work than him buy me flowers on Valentine's Day because society says he has to in order to show how much he loves me.

Valentine's Day is a great time for all those single people like myself to continually complain about being alone. But, if we stopped complaining long enough to embrace our singleness, we'd see just how much we have to offer the world. If you want a "significant other," stop posting your complaints on Facebook and go make something of yourself and show everyone your true, kind, beautiful self. Be the type of person that people want to be around. The type of person that people are attracted to (not necessarily in a romantic way, just in a character way).

And then of course, there are the obligations associated with Valentine's Day. Those who do have significant others feel obligated. They feel obligated to buy things, and say things, when in all honesty, buying things isn't how you should show your love. If you want to buy things, go for it, but how about telling them how you feel instead. Or showing them, just sit and talk with each other. And maybe it's because I don't really like gifts and my love language is time and words of encouragement, but really, time and conversation is better than any store bought obligation chocolate. Try giving the gift of your time, character, and company instead of the chocolates, jewelry, and flowers.

Finally, for those of us, like me, who couldn't care less about Valentines Day, who's dating who, and having a boyfriend or girlfriend, Valentine's Day is just annoying. All this bustle to buy a flower to give to that special someone, all those girls begging for flowers, teddy bears, and chocolate, and all those annoying public displays of affection--it just makes our normal lives harder because we have to deal with all that.

While all the other girls are freaking out about whether or not the boy they like will give them a flower, I am holding my nose to keep from sneezing from the roses. I am more hoping I will have enough money to buy myself some discount chocolate the next day. People think it is weird when I say I don't mind being alone on Valentine's Day or that I don't care that I don't have a boyfriend. But, I never believed in Valentine's Day anyway, and boys have cooties. Plus, guys don't like using those wonderful nerdy pickup lines, and, I'm not allowed to date until after I am married anyway.

So, what will I be doing on Valentine's Day while everyone else is searching for a valentine? I will be making myself into something, doing something with my life, and of course, waiting for the discount chocolate. I will be spending it with with my first and greatest love. A man, who years ago said to me, "Rebekah, I love you so much, that although you constantly fail me, I will still die for you, so you can be with me forever, and you can always have a relationship with me."

A man who loved me so much, He stretched out his hands and hung on a cross so that I could live with Him forever, and with those same hands, picks me up when I fall. A man who decided I was so beautiful, He made all the flowers in the world and gave them to me to enjoy. A man who decided that I was worth more than His own life. A man who loves me more than any human ever could, and who knows that it is worth spending Valentine's Day alone because eventually He will bring someone into my life who will love me enough to love Him more. I will spend Valentine's Day with a man who brought the entire world into existence, and made all people, and who still decides I am worth His sacrifice despite how undeserving I am. He gave me a life, and gave up His. What man would do that for you?

So, I will spend my Valentines Day alone, yet surrounded by love, because every day, I am living a love story. It's a story whose author is love itself. A story that no human could ever write or emulate. I live a love story of death and eternity, and unconditional, always present, love. My life is a love story and my love is the creator of love itself. That's how I am celebrating my Valentines Day.