Valentine's Day Special

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Now, the devil's nightmare. Welcome back to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Welcome back to a special edition. Of the Mad Up Show today. Why a special edition?

Well, because we're gonna highlight a special day. And that day would be Valentine's Day. That's right. Occurs every 14th of February. And this year is no different.

Across the United States and in other places, actually, around the world, candy and flowers and gifts are exchanged between loved ones, all in the name of St. Valentine.

Well, or so they say, Valentine's Day. And this is extra special, actually.

So it's a special show. For a special holiday, the holiday of love, right? Of love. And that laughing you would hear in the background would be none other than the legend himself, Robbie Dilmore. Robbie, welcome to the Man Up Show and to this special day.

Sweet heart, yeah. Oh, always great to have. Like, I'm loving these tag team shows more and more and more. You know, to bring you in on just special holidays or a holiday. I'm excited for the education.

I know there's much I need to know about St. Valentine that I'm going to get today. Yeah, well, there's a lot all of us need to know, especially when it comes to love, right? Because that's the emphasis on Valentine's, right? Is love, right?

Yeah, yeah. And boy, do we need it? I mean, that's one of the biggie commandments, as I recall. Mm. Wow.

Kind y so is that like the Robbie like okay, Valentine's Day aside for just a second.

So is love kind of the whole foundation of life? When you think about it, if there's the first two greatest commandments are love God and love others, you know, yeah. It seems that Valentine's would be a very Important thing to understand. An appropriate celebration for something that is scripturally foundational, right? Absolutely.

In fact, yeah, of course, what you're referring to is, you know, Jesus kind of actually narrowed down, like when they said, what's the greatest commandment, right? Right. And so, which is a tough question in and of itself.

Okay, you got these 10 commandments and like what, like 613 laws. You're exactly right. They were saying 613 to him. He was, these were the Pharisees, man. Let's narrow it down.

Yeah. He's like, 613. Yeah, let's distill this down from 613, not even down to just the original 10. Let me just distill it down to two for you, okay? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And then love others as you love yourself, right? That's it's so simple yet so hard.

So difficult, right? Because some of you out there, if you're like me, you're like, man, this is difficult. Hey, Robbie, have you ever found it difficult to love somebody else? He said, love others. Like, have you ever found it difficult to love somebody else?

Oh, my goodness You know, as yourself, really? You know, you got those people like, man, you got to be kidding me. Um, yeah, it's it's it's like he rigged it so we can't do it without him. I think he's a big part of the equation, and that I'm gonna take it a step further, and then he really like blew people's minds, right? He, meaning Jesus, blew people's minds.

And we're talking about love today, okay? It's this is a special Valentine's show, which all centers around love, and so we're just talking about the foundation. But then he blew people's minds when he said, You've heard it said. No, you know where I'm going with it. You've heard it said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy, right?

And then he like throws a curveball zinger in there, right? Right. I'm just gonna say, Love your enemy, right? And like. Man, like, really?

Like, talk about raising the bar, right? Or raising the whole, this whole love thing. To another level? What do you think? It's downright impossible.

Without him, right? In our nature, in our flesh, right? On our own. Man, that's hard. I don't even want to know how many times a day I just struggle with, you know, if you call somebody a fool.

Right, that you violated that thing. Like, man, even the least little, like, oh, wow, I just did it again. Oh, man. Like, I need to abide somehow. My biggest challenge there, so I'm gonna throw this out there.

My biggest challenge in life is behind the wheel of a car.

Now, you're the Christian Car Guy, you know, you got a very popular show on Truth Radio Network called the Christian Car Guy. Hey, if you haven't listened to it, hey, go download the Truth Radio app. Let's just start with that. But, but, and/or dial in if you're in certain markets, you know, Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Richmond, Virginia. I mean, Truth Radio plays in the number, Iowa, Utah, they, Ohio.

Now, I mean, there's a lot of markets that Truth Radio covers on the radio. Dial. But then, of course, you can tune in on the Truth Radio app. You got the Christian Car Guy Masculine Journey show. You got some very popular radio shows and podcasts of your own.

Um But so you can relate to when I say, My biggest challenge in life is behind the wheel of a car. And what I might be referring to there is loving another motorist on the road. You ought to try it being a Christian car guy in the car with your family, okay? Yes. When they come constantly remind you as you're saying things or doing things that may not be as appropriate in loving your fellow driver as they're saying, aren't you the Christian?

How do you like get on the radio? Like, you know, it's it. Hey, that's like, that's like, what was that joke about?

Somebody was like, the light turned from red to green, and somebody starts honking at the car in front of me because, which occasionally happens because they're not moving at light speed when the light changes, right? And there's a possibility they could be looking at, oh, I don't know, their phone, but maybe not. But maybe they're just caught up in their own little world and not paying attention to the light, right? Changing. And that person behind, man, lays on the horn, which, of course, I've had a few people do to me.

And the joke about how they start laying out a colorful expletive towards the person behind them. Right. Not expressing a whole lot of love, perhaps, that's to say. Only to find out or be reminded they had a bumper sticker on their car, honk for Jesus. Right, right, right.

Honking you love Jesus. There are a lot of Jesus lovers back there. Yeah. Must be a Jesus lover. Oh, my gosh.

Hey, be careful of the bumper stickers you put on your car. Especially when they go through the light and it turns yellow before you can go in. Man, that's when you really are feeling the love. Or the fish, or the fish. But I do, Robbie, man.

I struggle on the road, man. I mean, I'm convinced at this point that there are people out there on the highway. And the byways. That in their mind, they are in a video game. They are not in a 5,000-piece pound piece of machinery.

No, no. I had a guy, listen.

So, I'm going to tell this. I was over visiting my children and grandchildren. Over in Tennessee, uh for the the Christmas holidays. And I was on my way to church And this dude in this pickup truck.

Now, I'm in the, it's two lanes. I'm going to paint the picture here. There's a semi-truck in the left lane. Everybody's going 70. In a 70, by the way, so we are on the speed limit, but it's essentially bumper to bumper.

I had a pickup truck that kept racing up on my bumper. I mean, close enough that I couldn't read his license. Right. He's past the point. Yeah.

He's past the point of at 70 miles an hour. And then he'd back off a little bit, but then race up right on my bumper again. I'm like, dude, where do you want me to go? You want me to pull off on the shoulder? What do you want me to do?

Like, I can't go anywhere. There's a car in front of me. And, but it was so, Robbie, it was so close that I'm like, you know, just the wrong jerk of the wheel and somebody's dying here, you know. And I'm like, I got to tell you, I didn't lose my cool. But boy, I do have to tell you, it wasn't a whole lot of love oozing out at that point.

Anyway, that's my biggest challenge.

So you're saying we need Valentine's. That's why I a reminder.

So, yes, so Valentine's Day is just a reminder not only to love your loved ones and hand out gifts and candy and flowers and all those sorts of things. I guess we should actually get to the show, right? Make Hallmark famous and happy. Made Hallmark famous. And so as you've done some of these specials with me before, of course, you know, I do it a little bit.

Oh, yeah, I'm looking forward. I know 20 questions is coming. Maybe not 20. We may run out of time before I could ask 20. But let's, for our listeners out there, throw a few, maybe a few statistics out there, or at least some of the more recent statistics, right?

These numbers not maybe 100% accurate, but so but to test the knowledge, even not only your knowledge, Robbie, but even the knowledge of our listeners. Approximately how much, approximately how much. How much money will be spent in America?

Now, this is just America because I know others around the world do, but will be spent. You know, planned Valentine's Day sales in the United States. Any random guess that you might have?

Well, just based on the facts that it's the 14th of February, I'm going to guess 14 million.

Well, that's a pretty good stab at it. That was a stab as well. What if we about close to doubled that? Wow, 28 million? What if we go from million and add the B word in there?

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27.4 billion US dollars on Valentine's. You stumped a panel. Man, is that not like that? Is that my that's mind-blowing? That's a lot of chocolate, man.

That's a lot of chocolate, a lot of flowers. Hey, we should go into the chocolate or yeah, man. What are we thinking? Come on. You and I should be the next Willy Wonka.

I'm thinking. What do you think? Let's be Willy Wonka, man. Wow. Hey, speaking of chocolate, do you have a favorite between milk chocolate or dark chocolate?

I really like them both. You know, being diabetic, it just is very tempting to me, but I prefer probably dark.

So, you know, so for you health experts out there, or if you wanting to get healthier who love chocolate, A dark is better than milk. Ah, you know that, right? I did. I actually, believe it or not, I put a spoonful of coca in my coffee every morning.

Okay. Just unsweetened, you know, just to give my, that's where I get my dose of chocolate just coming out of the morning. For health, like medicinal purposes? Yeah, if you want to hear the whole deal, it's pretty radical. You might like this, Nikita, because you like radicals.

So, you know, turmeric's a big deal. Yes. So when I really wanted to control my blood sugar, I started putting turmeric. And then ginger and then black pepper and eventually put cocoa and and it ends up with this spiced coffee, which to me is just to die for. I don't put anything in it but that stuff.

Okay. And when you taste it, it almost tastes like it's been creamed, but it's just delicious and it has all these antioxidants in it. Like, man, all. And so I'm drinking this big old cup of coffee that's like loaded with everything I need, right? Thing first in the morning.

Man, for you coffee drinkers out there, recipe of the day, hey, you don't need to go to five bucks. Actually, I think it's about six bucks now. Yeah. You don't need to go there anymore. Just take Robbie's recipe.

And wow, I mean, there are a lot of coffee lovers out there.

So coffee, oh, coffee lovers. There's a lot of coffee lovers. Yeah, Valentine's coffee. Oh, that's awesome. Hey, approximately, Robbie, another question.

Approximately how many cards, any idea how many cards are sent or kind of handed off on a annual basis. Man, I better step up my thinking. Let's go with, yeah, you mentioned Hallmark.

So let's go with a billion.

Okay, so not quite a billion, but again, these aren't maybe not 100% accurate numbers, but you just get the idea. 145 million Valentine's cards are sent or mailed off or handed out on an annual basis.

Well, does that mean the average card's like seven bucks? It can be, unless you go to the dollar store and get two for a dollar. Because then we got to almost $28 billion just from the car. I know, right? I think we should go from chocolate to card business.

All right. It could all add up. It could all add up. And now that excludes, you know, like, you know, kids and because, you know, because what do the kids do in school? Do they still do this?

Remember, I remember when they added. I've got grandkids, and that is one of the cool things is all those little Valentines that they put in their little back, you know, and you get all of them from everybody in the class. You know, How, how validating is that for a little kid to get all those Valentine's like, man, all these people love me? I know, right? And so that $145 million excludes all the classroom exchanges.

Really? Yeah. Of Valentine's cards, right? As you're a parent out there, you know what we're talking about, right? You get those boxes of classroom cards or whatever for exchanges.

Be mine, right? You know, in so many different ways.

So, and this comes from the U.S. Greeting Card Association, by the way. That's where I'm getting my research here. All right. Well, hey, 50, I'll just, I won't question you on this one.

I'll just tell you this: 1,500 types of Valentine's Day greeting cards offered by Hallmark. You mentioned Hallmark. Why? 1,500. You gotta find just the right thing to say.

That's it. Right. And you know what? And I heard a sermon on this recently from a very famous drummer, a guy named Zoro. Really?

Yes. Have you ever heard of Zoro? I've heard of Zorro, but not a drummer.

So you're familiar with the sword and the Z? Is that what you say? I am. He was a masked marauder.

Well, this Zoro is, and I mean, like, for real, like legendary. Like, I'm hoping to one day get him on the Manup show and interview him. I mean, he has played in all genres of music, and he's world famous as a drummer. I mean, everyone from Lenny Kravitz to Bobby Brown to Frankie Valley. I mean, he's drummed for them all.

And has incredible stories. And anyway, I, yeah, why did I bring him up?

Now I forget.

Something to do. We were talking about cards and then, um, Wow, what did I ask you? Or something. We lost our track. That's okay.

We did. Anyway, hey, well, moving on from Zero. He gave you a great sermon. I know that. Yes, thank you.

Thank you. Thank you, Robbie. Because, yeah, the point was talking about words because you brought up the words on a card. Right. And he did a great sermon on how words matter.

So what we say matters. And sometimes if I'm looking for a card, and I'm a big card guy, whether it's Valentine's Day, a birthday, Christmas, whatever, Thanksgiving, I mean, I just love cards and love to express what I'm feeling in my heart. Through a through a card. Which is how I'm sure that industry all kind of came about, right? And so there are a lot of really cool cards out there that can, those cards sometimes can put.

What's in your heart expressed to another person more than you could express the words yourself? Have you ever experienced that? That there are a lot of things I would say to that, Nikita. Number one, I have this friend that taught me something along these lines. That I've never forgotten because his daughter died, you know, when she was at high school graduation, just a tragic thing.

And what he told me was: he said, Robbie, I can remember. I can't remember actually a single person that came to the funeral, but I can remember. everyone that didn't. Mm wow. And wow.

That is like my wife. She can't remember a single card I gave her, but I can assure you. She can remember every... Card, I didn't, right? And that's, you know, that goes for a lot of things of.

People that you really should give card. Like, people, it means something to get something, but it also means something when you don't get something. Yeah. And it sends two different messages that necessarily I don't want to send, but it has to do with, again, love and being thoughtful of somebody other than myself. Man, that's good.

And so for you listening out there, hey, if you hadn't got your Valentine's card, you better run to the store right now, especially if you're married and get that card for that loving spouse of yours to express just how much you love him or her. Yeah, there's billions more for a Hallmark right there, buddy. Exactly. I better get a cut off of this. I'm just saying.

Hey, a survey was done, Robbie, by the National Retail Federation showing how much the average American will spend on Valentine's Day. Like to take a stab at that number? It's not. A huge, huge number, but 250.

Okay, well, that's that's that's pretty ballpark. $161.96. Um. That you were high that time that lavish on their loved ones. $161.96.

And want to guess what the number one gift, number one gift is? Chocolate? No, but that's a good guess. Flowers? Flowers are the most popular Valentine's gift.

Costing approximately $73 per order on average. I told you. See, we either need to go in the card business, the chocolate business, or the florist business, Robbie. I'm just saying. We can make enough on this one day, Valentine's Day, to like to pay for our whole year, you know, supply our whole year.

But flowers really speak to love in really neat ways. When you think about what a flower is doing, right? It it's it's it's attracting, right, to be fruitful, and that's the whole deal, man. Yeah. Well, and most men opt for what flower do you think most men opt for?

I'm guessing with red roses. That's a pretty good guess. Red roses and white and soft pink factor in there as well.

Now, we mentioned chocolate. I want to get this in, too, because we mentioned chocolate and most Americans buy on average. It turns out, I'll just tell you, this turns out 58. Million Pounds of chocolate are purchased. in the s in seven days leading up to Valentine's Yeah.

Well okay, I will ask you though, what's the most popular uh candy though? Choc so chocolate, but what what what we think the most popular? Oh man, um I I don't know.

So heart-shaped boxes of chocolate.

Okay. Heart-shaped. Of course. What's the heart symbolize, Rob? It does.

What's the heart symbolize? It symbolizes where Jesus hangs out, actually, more than anything. Yeah, it symbolizes love. And that's a good thing that he hangs out there, right? It does, right?

And hey, the MM company jumped all over this too because they produce pink and red and white MMs, which is. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. So some of these other companies, because, you know, again, red, pink, and white are kind of the symbols of Valentine's Day, too, right?

So. But anyway, so any idea before, you know, before we run out of time here, especially for our listeners, you know, I mentioned St. Valentine.

Any. How much history do you know about how Valentine's Day even came about?

Well, give me a test. We'll see what I think. Here's what I thought.

Okay, but I know you've done the research, but as I recall, he was a um A priest. Who and they had outlawed marriage in Rome or something along those lines. And this dude went. behind everybody's back and was marrying people. How cool, right?

Yep. And I think, if I'm not mistaken, he was martyred for it. He was, yes. Yep. Yeah.

Very, very good, yeah. I mean, it's kind of shrouded in ministry, you know, mystery, I should say, shrouded in mystery, but the history, some of the history centers around this, he was considered a patron saint. Right. Valentine was St. Valentine.

And, but yeah, he, you know, there was like almost like a month of romance. Of course, obviously Valentine's centers around romance, right? And, but, but, you know, the vestiges of really of both Christian and even ancient Roman tradition all kind of point back to St. Valentine and how he became associated with the ancient rite, as we might call it. Love being stronger than death, right?

Yes. I mean, that's a beautiful thing to give your. life, you know, for love. Right. In fact, we tie scripture into that, right?

No greater love than to lay down your life for your friend, right? Right. And the Song of Solomon: Love is stronger than death. And just to kind of just to kind of tie this all together.

So back to Saint, yeah, he was imprisoned. He was imprisoned because of doing what you said, you know, just marrying people. And even though he wasn't supposed to do that, his captors had actually a blind daughter, as the story goes, that converted to Christianity. And And the He had ministered to that family and ended up, I guess, prior to his death, like leaving her a A card or some type of note. That then led to the whole idea of really, even eventually, Valentine's.

Cards. Wow. Yeah. So interesting, right? Yeah, that's really cool, though, when you think about how precious a word is from somebody who's given their life for love.

Yep. And so, wouldn't it be cool to, in our own way, right? We all get a Valentine's card from Jesus. We we we do, right? And and it you know, so if And con if we kind of conclude Valentine's Day, it all centers around romance and love.

And and I know we don't have time today. Maybe we need to have you on the show the Man Up Show sometime and talk about your study of the Song of Solomon. That kind of centers around love. Oh, it does completely fruitfulness. Yeah, you have studied that.

And so Valentine's Day really focuses on romance and love. And of course, the Bible, you know, what's it say about romance and love?

Well, a lot, right? I mean, really, the whole Bible, Robbie. Would you agree with the love story? It's the ultimate Valentine's card. I just thought you did it.

That's what it is. There it is.

So if you want the ultimate Valentine's card, if you've never picked up a Bible, then read it. Can we encourage you today on this Valentine's Day special show to pick up a Bible and read the greatest love story ever written? And it'll be spoken right to that person reading it, right, Robbie? Oh, those words are so important.

So God bless you. Happy Valentine's Day. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of It's Time to Man Up. Hope you enjoyed this special today. This podcast is made possible by the grace of God.

and your faithful prayers, support, and generous gifts. May God bless you for your continual contributions. Go to kolof.net and donate. Good day. I Nikita Koloff.

Be sure to check out the Man Up Show now available on television, broadcast, and podcast. Go to MorningstarTV.com or the Truth Radio Network. Check out your local listings, or better yet. Download the Truth Network app today. Nikita Koloff here.

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