After reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan years ago, I decided to take his advice and place our names in the passage for 1 Corinthians 13. I used this approach for my young sons to turn Valentine’s Day into a discipleship lesson on love. The fill-in-the-blank printout I created went like this:
_______________ is patient.
_______________ is kind.
_______________ does not want what belongs to others, etc.
Each boy slowly printed his name, and we proudly displayed each sheet on the board in our home. After a few days and a lot of mess-ups, I felt like a failure. I was not very patient and the boys were not consistently kind to each other. I took the sheets down. The next Valentine’s Day I taught the same lesson. This year will be different, right? Sadly, no.
After the third or fourth Valentine’s Day, God revealed what I had been missing. We cannot “love” in our power or strength, but “love” through the Holy Spirit.
“Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,” says the LORD Almighty”
Zechariah 4:6

Use our Valentines Day Printable to teach others we are to love with God!
Yes, only “with God” can we love well.
The Valentines Day printable fill-in-the-blank was changed immediately, as well as my approach when I failed. Rather than feeling stuck in guilt or shame when I was unable to love well consistently, I turned to God in repentance and faith.
To this day, I’m still working on loving well consistently, but God consistently loves well in return. We can turn to Him and He always, always loves us. His love is greater than our failures.
When we teach women around the world or teach our children, we teach to love others with God and with God’s help. There is a difference. We’re not on our own spreading God’s love to a love-starved world. We’re working with God and He is working through us.
For this Valentine’s Day, we pray you not only spread God’s love, but also teach others to do the same…through the power of the Holy Spirit.