Hope and Charlie Brown, Be My Valentine

Friday evening my husband and I were watching Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown. 

I always identified with Charlie Brown. I never really felt like I belonged anywhere. I had a few close friends and that was it. I wasn't ever really popular, I recognized it and I was OK with that. 

Unlike Charlie Brown, we had rules for students for Valentine's Day. Teachers sent home lists of the students in the class and you were to bring valentines in for each student, whether you liked them or not. So I never felt like Charlie did, while everyone else got a Valentine and I sat silently, simply waiting, with his empty briefcase to carry all of his valentines home.

Yet Charlie Brown never gives up hope. At one point Charlie Brown receives a valentine from a classmate. The valentine is used, the classmate erased their name and wrote Charlie's name instead. Schroeder is outraged and yells at the classmate and his insensitivity to offer Charlie a used  valentine. Charlie Brown interrupts Schroeder and says that he will gladly accept the used valentine. Later we see Linus and Charlie Brown discussing the day. Charlie Brown is sharing how excited he is having received his first valentine. He then looks to the future hoping that next year he'll receive numerous valentines. 

Life is like this. We get beat up everyday. We try new things, some work and others don't. We talk to new people and some like us, but other don't. We get knocked down and yet we can choose to get back up. We can choose to hope that tomorrow will be better. Or we can choose that tomorrow we will get knocked down and decide to simply stay down. 

This is where I really identify with Charlie Brown. I choose hope! I choose joy! I choose love! I don't want to believe that all people are cruel and mean and want to destroy us. I know that is how Satan works - he seeks to kill and destroy. I know that as a Christian. Jesus came to seek and save the lost, that means me. He told us that he came that we may have LIFE and have it to the FULL!!! (John 10:10)

One of my favorite passages in the Bible is in Habakkuk 3:17 - 19. We have a choice in how we respond to our circumstances. We can wallow in self-pity and be destroyed or we can choose JOY and overcome. I choose JOY! I pray that you will too.