A Dozen Red Roses - Pt 5

You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love, lovely as Jerusalem, awesome as an army with banners. Turn away your eyes from me, for they overwhelm me—Your hair is like a flock of goats leaping down the slopes of Gilead. Your teeth are like a flock of ewes that have come up from the washing; all of them bear twins; not one among them has lost its young. Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate behind your veil. (Song of Solomon 4:6-7 ESV).

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. I hope you’ve already visited the card aisle and selected that perfect expression for your love. It’s strange to me we do so much on this one day and so little the rest of the year. Compliments should be the norm in a love relationship. Much of Song of Solomon could be words in an anniversary card or on a thousand sticky notes left for your love to find around the house on Valentine’s Day. The poetry in this song is as if the two of them are competing with one another with kind, loving, and even seductive words directed at the other. We all have different words that are meaningful and expressive for us. Solomon loved similes and metaphors. He was a master at weaving words together, and the reader clearly sees the passion and adoration taking place between he and his love. He also never compares their love to anything unbecoming. As I consider my marriage, I realize I don’t often have the words to express these powerful emotions, and I certainly didn’t know how to early in our courtship. Perhaps you struggle with this as well. We can learn from Solomon and use more positive comparisons in our love language to our spouse. Someone recently told me that they were having difficulty even finding something to compliment their husband about. I remembered a verse in Paul’s letter to the Philippians and told her to look for whatever was “true, noble, right, pure, lovely, and admirable” (cf. Philippians 4:8) in her husband and to praise him for those things. She made a concerted effort to do that and a few weeks later when she came back to see me, she said when her words towards her husband changed to praise, her marriage began to heal. My challenge for you is to be intentional in expressing grace, gratitude, and praise to your loved ones this week. Do it spontaneously and deliberately. Even if you don’t have a spouse, express these things to those you are close to. Even your children need these words of affirmation. There are plenty of others who would tear them down; build them up with your words and actions today.