The date was all set,                                February 14, 1955.  At                                the time I was enrolled in a Master of Divinity degree program, which required 90 semester hours of graduate study, plus a thesis for which I wrote 153 pages on “Counseling in the Christian Education Program for Teen-Agers.”  At that time I knew more about teenagers than most anybody I had heard of.  That foolish notion vanished about one month after Elizabeth became a teenager and was obliterated once Mark reached 13.  Five grandchildren have stamped on my mind the notion I have carried for many years, you never really know a whole lot about teenagers until you have had some of your own.

All the books, lectures, speeches and sermons never teach you as much about adolescence as the experience of participating in what I have chosen to call “teenage, life’s greatest age.”  That has been my theme in speaking to many thousands of middle school, high school and college/university students on every continent, in numerous countries and for many years.  They are still my favorite audience.

Kitty and I were not teenagers when we met, courted and decided to spend the rest of our lives with each other.  I was ready to leave Anderson, Indiana, and travel to Springfield, Ohio, on that Saint Valentine’s Day.  A phone call came from Kitty telling me that she was confined to bed with the flu.  The party had been cancelled.  Don’t bother asking or thinking about what I did.  I went on as planned.

Seldom, if ever, since that time have I seen her so grounded and unable to be her jubilant, smiling and energetic self except when in labor at the hospital to give birth to two beautiful babies.  Beside her bed, at the most romantic time possible in a flu-seize, I presented her with a beautiful “diamond” studded brooch.

She has been my valentine ever since.  The most beautiful, charming, loving, multi-talented person I have ever known.  Not once has she ever disappointed me or failed me.  Only my abundance of ignorance and stupidity has ever caused even a ripple in our relationship.  If only I could have been as intelligent and wise as she has been.

It is all about love, love that is poles apart from lust and cheap unsatisfying sex.  It is what Ralph Waldo Emerson called, “Our highest word, and the synonym of God.”  It is what people in their nineties and older, or a bit younger, mean when they say, “We love each other more than ever.”  Younger folks probably don’t understand that, but we can all hope that they live long enough with their spouse to find out.

St. Paul wrote the most complete treatise about love the world has ever known in his first letter to the church of God at Corinth.  In chapter 13 he concluded with, “And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”  In verse one of chapter 14 he said, “Let love be your greatest aim . . .”

More than ever Kitty is my valentine.  My earnest desire is that all married men and women find appropriate ways of expressing their love for each other by being kind, caring and faithful.

Publisher's Note: Bill Ellis, Award Winning Syndicated Columnist, P.O. Box 345, Scott Depot, WV 25560.  Phone:304-757-6089
www.BillEllis.Net.