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The stores are filled with
balloons, heart shaped cookies and doughnuts, and ads for roses fill the
internet and television. Valentine’s Day
is celebrated by those who have sweethearts and endured by those who are alone
with no significant other.
Spring is steadily moving in on
Georgia after weeks of above average temperatures and just enough rain to coax
daffodils to poke their heads up. Tulip
trees are bursting with blooms from pink to dark red. We’ve had so little cold weather this winter,
I’m afraid the flowers will appear, only to be burned when the next cold blast
rolls through.
Love and spring are definitely in
the air. Mark Twain described the
longing that comes this time of year as follows:
“It's spring fever. That
is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want—oh, you don't quite
know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want
it so!”
All is not
hearts and flowers when you realize that the tax man and his deadlines are fast
approaching. Since we own a company, we pay
estimated taxes on a quarterly basis, but our annual day of reckoning with the
IRS is on March 15. Maybe William Shakespeare was on to something when he used
this quote in Julius Caesar. “Beware the Ides of March.”
I read a thought-provoking
Bible verse this past week that sums up my responsibilities as a Christian to
pay all I owe. Imagine—the IRS and Valentine’s Day in the same verse!!
“Pay
all that you owe, whether it is taxes and fees or respect and honor. Let love
be you only debt! If you love others, you have done all that the Law demands.”
Romans 13:7-8 (CEV)
I think it is
easier to pay government required taxes and fees than to fulfill the rest of
the verse to respect, honor, and love. The former is a matter of duty, but the
later requires an attitude of the heart. It can be challenging to respect,
honor, and love when others don’t act in a deserving way. As with all the
commands in the Bible, I must depend on God’s grace and strength to love those
who love me back as well as the unlovely and unlovable. This is not the sweet, romantic
love celebrated on Valentine’s Day, but the hard work of sharing our lives with
those around us.
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