I don’t keep a habit of remembering Valentine’s day particularly well, but on this one I was surreptitiously listening to some Andrew Peterson music and hit the song “World Traveler”.  I think when many of us enter life we have grand visions of what we have set out to do and sometimes those visions end up being accurate depictions of how our lives turn out.  In other cases, the visions are very different than what we actually experience, but the one we participate in is much better than we could have imagined.  World Traveler talks about a person who sees a life before them in exploration and adventure, though later finds himself finding the love of his life, getting married, and having kids.  This transition to many might seem like he lost the opportunity for exploration and is now in the monotony of daily life.  The song however paints a different idea, one that matches my own experience, which is the discovery of love and the voyage through life with children brings about a greater degree of insight, adventure, and joy than even the most interesting of travels.  As I look at my own life this Valentine’s day, I know that my wife and my children have made me who I am, have opened my eyes to who I can be, and are the greatest gifts God could provide in this life.  I combine that with what I have the opportunity to do for work and I have much to be thankful for.  This isn’t to say that everyone is called to the vocation of marriage, but for me, it brings about who I’m called to be because of its challenges and the need to give of myself, rather than take.  What a blessing the burden of this vocation can be when I think of it as a blessing instead.