While the 14th of February worked out great for me, in the sense
that I was able to do everything I wanted to do and had no
complaints about anything and overall had a good day, I've already
started thinking of ways I can take it a step further next year.
Rather than basically ignoring V-Day and taking pleasure in not
having to do anything for anyone on that day, I've realized that it
would be more pleasing to God if I were to use this gift that He's
given me to help other singles. What I tried to do this year was to
preach my "chill out" attitude to all the singles who make a big
deal about Valentine's Day. And in retrospect, that didn't really
accomplish anything. The only responses I got were from the few
people who agreed with me, and they weren't the people that I felt
needed to hear my message. Meanwhile, other singles continued to
lament about how depressing V-Day was or justify their need to still
call it Singles Awareness Day. Perhaps some of them simply didn't
read my message, but I suspect that one major reason my message got
ignored was that it didn't even deal with the common struggles with
loneliness that many singles face on February 14th. And that's just
because I, personally, don't struggle with loneliness from being
single.

This made me realize that my ability to enjoy my singleness is
really a gift that God has given me, as opposed to a mindset that I
should expect all other single adults to adopt. And I know that
when God gives somebody a gift, He expects that person to use it for
HIS glory, not the individual's. So one way I could use this
particular gift is to lift up various singles that I know are
struggling with Valentine's Day, instead of saying, "What's wrong
with you people?" and telling everyone not to bother me with their
rants about not having a significant other. This may involve
sending notes or e-cards to various singles with encouraging
messages or doing something else nice for them. That's something
I'll decide next year as the date approaches. But I think in
general, God wants me to use my singleness to serve others, instead
of just for my own enjoyment, which is something I've known for a
while but haven't bothered to figure out how to implement. Perhaps
this is God's way of telling me I need to take it more seriously and
put more thought into it.

--Wayne