— 1 —   This Week’s Post: Esther’s guest post, Guard Your Heart, had an amazing number of hits and the high-hit-trend lasted for days!  Fantastic job, Esther and thank you so much!

— 2 —   Upcoming posts:  I have some great guest posts planned in the next couple of weeks!  The first is from a girl who shares her story and wisdom about how to know if you are a priority or just an option. She is now married and took the time to share her stories from the dating battlefield.  Awesome! 

The next mystery guest blogger is a guy.  And, he is a Doctor of Psychology!  I will be interviewing him about his journey toward marriage and his insights into God’s providence and will when it comes to our vocation. I cannot wait to share this with you!!!

 —3 —  Not Alone Series: This week’s NAS topic was: “if only I knew then…. What would you tell your former self about being single if given the chance? What have you learned that you wish you could tell your younger self?”  It made me think about what I would tell my younger self which I think most of which is captured in this blog.  In summary:  “Dear Young Cindy:  You are covered by a veil. He can’t see you!”

Rachel had some excellent lessons which included:

1.  Stop worrying and projecting irrational fears onto your future.  

2. Don’t judge people from first impressions. 

And Laura did a surprising take on it when she captured what she wish she didn’t know about love.  Check out all the girls’ posts!

— 4 —  Spotlight On:  This week’s spotlight is on 2 girls from……..Argentina(!!) who launched their new blog, A ti te lo digo,on Tuesday, the feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes!  This almost makes me cry when I tell you that the purpose of their blog is to translate others’ blogs about the wisdom of Chastity from English into Spanish.  And, they have asked for my permission to translate The Veil of Chastity blog posts into Spanish.  Yes, of course they have my permission! Their first translation: ¿Los hombres necesitan ayuda?  Anyone want to venture a guess?  What a beautiful mission for these lovely girls!  Here is their new blog, their Facebook page and Twitter.  Let’s all support them and show the beauty of the Universal Church!

— 5 —   Valentine’s Day:  Ignore.  Stupid marketing ploy. 

— 6 —   Secular Romance Is Overrated:  I have never been a fan of V-day and when Gregg and I were dating, I think I gave him an electric toothbrush for V-day.  Yes, Miss Practical.  He gave me chocolates and jewelry. I think.  He is very generous yet, as the years go on, the focus of V-day becomes less and less.  This does not make me feel less loved at all because what makes me really feel loved are the things he does for our family every day.  It is less about secular and material romance and more about sacrifice, acceptance, affection and protection.  These are the beautiful fruits of Superabundance.  All of which lead to holy romance.  As a reminder, I am once again sharing this post from Ann from A Holy Experience called Redefining Boring: 

“The man who imagines slipping his arm around his wife’s soft, thickening middle age waistline and whispering that he couldn’t love her more…. The real romantics imagine greying and sagging and wrinkling as the deepening of something sacred. Because get this, kids — How a man proposes isn’t what makes him romantic. It’s how a man purposes to lay down his life that makes him romantic. The real romantics know that stretchmarks are beauty marks and that different shaped women fit into the different shapes of men souls and that real romance is really sacrifice. And there is now and the beautiful boring, the way two lives touch and go deeper into time with each other. The clock ticking passionately into decades.”

— 7 —  Retreat:  Remember I shared with you that I am going on a Silent (shhhhhh) Retreat?  Well, it is this weekend!  I will be praying for those of you on my Divine Mercy Chaplet prayer list as I adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament.  I anticipate some healing will take place and am excited to see how the Lord moves in my life. 

God love and bless you!

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