It’s Valentine’s Day. Whew! You’ve helped your kids get all their Valentines ready to take to all their classmates at school and you let out a sigh of relief when the task was completed. The kids are all off to school now and you suddenly realize that you put effort into the children’s classmates Valentines, but what about your own children’s Valentines?

What are a few last-minute ideas for Valentine love to our children/grandchildren?

Start with checking out Wendy Sparkes’ post last Monday on this blog. She covered a lot of ground that is jam-packed with ideas. I’ll try to add a few more last minute ideas here.

Bake a valentine. It can be heart-shaped cookies or a heart-shaped cake. An easy way to make a heart-shaped cake is with a square pan and a round pan that has the same size diameter as the width of the square pan. Cut the round pan in half and put it on two sides that come together. Here is a picture showing how it works. If you don’t have a square pan, a rectangular cake can be trimmed down to make a square.

Has your child has been waiting for you to do something for him/her? Today could be the day to get around to doing it.

Surprise your child by doing his chores for him or cleaning up his room. Give her extra privileges for the day.

If you are a grandparent who lives far away, call your grandchild on the phone, or even better arrange a video chat.

Read or tell your children a love story from the Bible. The book of Ruth is a fantastic example of a love story, first with Ruth’s dedication to her mother-in-law Naomi, and second, the love story between Ruth and Boaz.

And don’t neglect to tell the children about the greatest love story of them all – when Jesus died on the cross so our sins could be forgiven, and we could become his dearly loved children forever.

Have a Happy Valentine’s Day!