So Valentines day is around the corner, and it is literally EVERYWHERE! From the grocery store to my mailbox. I see little pink and red hearts on everything I touch. I like the idea of Valentines day but the commercialization of it makes me gag. To me, Valentines day’s sole purpose is to just buy gifts.
It feels like an empty holiday with no real meaning behind it.
My first instinct was to simply not celebrate it. My family and I were going to boycott valentines day! But then…my daughter came home from school with a bag full of pink construction paper. That’s when I realized boycotting wasn’t the solution because I can’t hide it from my daughter every second of her life. I might be able to control her influencers right now, but as she gets older I won’t be able to. But what I CAN do is add meaning to the holiday. I can give her a tool to make the holiday more meaningful.
I started by listing the people and things I love, the ones I would celebrate valentines day with. I realized the things I love all come from Allah, because after all Allah is the creator of all. So that became the meaning I wanted to add to valentines day: I love Allah for…
Now, my daughter is three years old. She understands maybe 10% of the words coming out of my mouth, so I had to get creative in teaching her this meaning. I decided to use our dining table to teach, it’s similar to my thanksgiving/allhamdollilah table).
This week, I wrote “I Love Allah for” in the middle of the table when I covered it with canvas paper. Over lunch, dinner and just play time throughout the week I would ask her what she loves and I would write it out in block letters and have her color it. Each time we wrote a new thing down I would read out “I love Allah for…” For example, she chose cookies, so I read out “I love Allah for cookies.”
When I asked her what do you love, she listed the usuals: Mama, Baba and cookies. The harder part was trying to get her to understand they all come from Allah.
I can’t say that she understood the concept of everything comes from Allah. But she made an association of the things she loves and Allah.
My hope is that little reminders and activities I provide her will build a positive association with Allah and grow her love for her faith.
Everyone has a different opinions and I would love to hear yours! What do you guys think? How do you celebrate?
