{"id":55,"date":"2012-02-10T14:17:57","date_gmt":"2012-02-10T14:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/?p=55"},"modified":"2012-02-10T14:17:57","modified_gmt":"2012-02-10T14:17:57","slug":"valentines-day-and-loneliness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2012\/02\/valentines-day-and-loneliness.html","title":{"rendered":"Valentine&#8217;s Day and loneliness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When you are alone at Valentine&#8217;s it&#8217;s the pits!<\/p>\n<p>The day after Christmas the stores begin hawking Valentine cards, candy, decorations&#8230;Everything is about romance and couples. Even the Animal Planet is about couples.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe you&#8217;d like to go to a movie that night &#8211; but sitting in the theatre by yourself just screams, &#8220;She&#8217;s alone!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Our culture doesn&#8217;t know how to be alone. I recently went to a church that has a group called &#8220;Pairs and Spares&#8221;. I&#8217;m not sure I&#8217;d want to be considered a &#8220;spare&#8221;! That just seems to devalue the person who is alone.<\/p>\n<p>I read somewhere that 15% of American women send themselves flowers for Valentines. Perhaps to cover up the fact that no one will send them flowers.<\/p>\n<p>It is okay to be alone on Valentines &#8211; there are worse things. This year instead of feeling sorry for yourself call some single or widowed friends and have them over for dinner. Keep it simple &#8211; can be just soup and salad. Ask the question, &#8220;What was your best Valentine&#8217;s Day and what was your worst?&#8221; Good conversation \u00a0starter.<\/p>\n<p>You will have fun &#8211; everyone will have a good time and forget their loneliness. Especially you!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When you are alone at Valentine&#8217;s it&#8217;s the pits! The day after Christmas the stores begin hawking Valentine cards, candy, decorations&#8230;Everything is about romance and couples. Even the Animal Planet is about couples. Maybe you&#8217;d like to go to a movie that night &#8211; but sitting in the theatre by yourself just screams, &#8220;She&#8217;s alone!&#8221;&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":466,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Valentine&#039;s Day and loneliness - Safe Place with Ruth Graham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2012\/02\/valentines-day-and-loneliness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Valentine&#039;s Day and loneliness - Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When you are alone at Valentine&#8217;s it&#8217;s the pits! The day after Christmas the stores begin hawking Valentine cards, candy, decorations&#8230;Everything is about romance and couples. Even the Animal Planet is about couples. Maybe you&#8217;d like to go to a movie that night &#8211; but sitting in the theatre by yourself just screams, &#8220;She&#8217;s alone!&#8221;&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2012\/02\/valentines-day-and-loneliness.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Safe Place with Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-10T14:17:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ruth Graham\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Valentine's Day and loneliness - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/safeplacewithruthgraham\/2012\/02\/valentines-day-and-loneliness.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Valentine's Day and loneliness - Safe Place with Ruth Graham","og_description":"When you are alone at Valentine&#8217;s it&#8217;s the pits! The day after Christmas the stores begin hawking Valentine cards, candy, decorations&#8230;Everything is about romance and couples. Even the Animal Planet is about couples. 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No stranger to heartache, she seeks to provide a Biblical perspective to her journey of faith. She is warm and talks openly about her own need for a safe place as she journeyed through her husband\u2019s infidelities, her subsequent depression, her divorces, her teenage daughter\u2019s two unplanned pregnancies, another daughter\u2019s bulimia, her son\u2019s battle with drugs, grandson's special needs and returning to school at age 40. Although born into the \"famous\" Graham family Ruth did not feel she had a safe place to unburden the secrets of her life. She felt she had to project and image and wear a mask that she \"had it all together\". She had to meet others' expectations of her. It was not until a mid-life crisis did that she fully discover the unconditional love and grace of God. Her life's passion is to connect people to that same grace and love she found, no matter who they are or what sin. Ruth is an experienced conference speaker and Bible teacher. She has appeared on a variety of radio and television shows including: Good Morning, America, The Hour of Power, Focus on the Family, Moody Broadcasting, Fox &amp; Friends, CBN, Life Today and CNN. She has worked in publishing for over 14 years and is the founder of the Ruth Graham &amp; Friends Ministry. Ruth has three grown children and nine grandchildren. She lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. 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