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It’s Valentine’s day.

Hm.

Anyway, my youth pastor was telling us the other night in youth group about how he’s so traumatized by Valentine’s day. So he was telling this story about how his parents had a HUGE fight on Valentine’s day when he was little. There were four kids, and he was the second one, and they were all hiding in this bathtub while his parents yelled and screamed at each other and threw chairs and took out knives. So there they were, hiding in the bathroom when my youth pastor remembered it was Valentine’s day. Turning to his siblings, he sarcastically said, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

… And to this day, he hates Valentine’s day because of those memories… to this day Valentine’s day has become associated with those memories of his parents fighting and saying cruel words and doing cruel things to each other. He hates Valentine’s day even till now because he can’t think of it without thinking of THAT day.

I thought about that for a while.

And then I realized that even though we may have awful memories that stain whatever comes afterwards, we can always make new memories. Good ones. My youth pastor might be “scarred” as he says, but he still tried to make Valentine’s day a memorable time for us in youth group. He got one of those 12 inch cookie cake things… and some chocolate… and some cupcakes, and bought a balloon for us.

As for me, my Valentine’s day could have been a lot better. The night before I got into a HUGE fight with my dad… so there was a lot of screaming going on… and a lot of nastiness in general. I went to bed in tears. It wasn’t as much traumatizing as it was incredibly upsetting. In fact, I’ve not been that upset in a long long time. If you know me, you know that I have to be really upset to scream at someone. Afterwards I almost threw up, I was that upset. So… it could have been better.

Remember to smile. Remember that though the bad memories may seem to ruin your life now… you can always make new memories. It’s not impossible. I know it because that’s what I’m doing right now. ❤