On Happy Hearts week...

...let's talk about gifts!

It's a common practice to give gifts on Valentine's Day: chocolates, flowers, cards, and handmade stuff. At the very least, Valentine's is an occasion to share and be thoughtful. But because of advertising and marketing, it's become some overblown special day--another excuse to spend.

As my post comes too late for V-Day itself, this won't be a list of tipid tips or ideas for handmade cards. Because the day is all about love, however, this is a good time to talk about pure love as a gift. How could pure love be a gift?

Enter Kylie Bisutti.

Kylie joined a Victoria's Secret modeling contest in 2009 and won. She says she was newly married at the time--and gradually her marriage brought about a change of heart. Just last week she made it to the headlines announcing that she was going to stop modeling lingerie, which, in her words, "isn't clothing."

In an interview for Good Morning America, she says, "Just very recently, [I've been] growing in my relationship with the Lord, and my faith. I'm a strong-believing Christian. I just became so convicted about wanting to honor my husband... and wanting to be a role model for other women out there."

In a different interview, she says, "I just want to do everything I can to keep my marriage special. My body should only be for my husband and it's just a sacred thing."

What's the lesson here? 

Now, I'm not gonna write about the best gift ladies can give their future husbands because I think Kylie Bisutti has made that point clear enough.... I want this lesson to be for the guys.

When the interviewer (at Good Morning America) asks Kylie what her husband thought about her modelling, she answers that he was supportive, but adds, "I'm just so thankful that he let me grow, and let me come to this decision on my own. He obviously prayed about it. I know that now, after talking to him."

Kylie and her hubby Mike Bisutti. Image from Denimblog.

Sometimes, women buy the idea that, to be beautiful, they have to show people what they've got. If they're not careful, they also fall into that frame of mind that, to find someone who will love them and not leave them, girls have to give up everything. It is when women think this way that the need for true gentlemen becomes all the more apparent. 

We need men who are real men; men who will love us for who we are and, when we're wrong, lovingly steer us into the right direction through friendship and prayer. More than any fancy chocolate or special card, it's those two things that become the most beautiful and lasting gifts a young lady can receive during this month of hearts! Happy Valentine's Day!

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."-Lao Tzu