This episode of Pirate Money Radio will air on Valentine's Day

Kevin Freeman: All right, I want to start with a public service announcement aimed primarily at men. While this is pre recorded, this episode of Pirate Money Radio will air on Valentine's Day, at least on our terrestrial radio network. For those listening by podcast, check the calendar. It may be too late for you already, but if you're tuning in by radio, it is Saturday morning, February 14th, year of our Lord 2026. Men, it's not too late. Pour your coffee into to go cup. Head to the car. Be sure to tune in on the car radio. But this is important. Get in the car and head to your local Hallmark store or drugstore. Map it out so you can stop at a florist and maybe the jewelry store. Yes, it's Valentine's Day, a day you should have planning for weeks in advance, but somehow it sneaks up on you. You get lulled into complacency by the start of a new year, and then the super bowl, and boom, less than a week later, here we are. Do not panic. It's still salvageable. make some excuse to run an errand. Don't admit you forgot you need gas. You have to head to the hardware store. Get moving. Do something to get out there. I've endured, I mean, enjoyed many Valentine's days in my life. Let me correct that. I endured many before meeting Marnie. And I've enjoyed the love and romance ever since she into my life. We just had her here two weeks ago on Pirate Money Radio, talking about life lessons we've learned together. It was a great episode. Go back, catch it in podcast form. But I couldn't imagine having a Valentine's Day show without her. And equally true, I wasn't planning on having Mike as co host for this topic. So I want to welcome back my best friend, life partner, wife, and favorite person on planet Earth, the incomparable Marnie. Welcome, sweetheart.

Marnie Freeman: Aw. Thank you for having me again. I love being with you.

Kevin Freeman: Happy Valentine's Day.

Marnie Freeman: Happy Valentine's Day.

Kevin Freeman: I wanted to dedicate this show to romance. Now I understand from a Christian perspective. Yes. And maybe we'll share some of our stories and our memories, our favorite romantic movies. We might even work in a pirate theme or two. How does that sound?

Marnie Freeman: That sounds good.

Men should refrain from discussing whether Christians should celebrate Valentine's Day

Kevin Freeman: All right, so we'll get into whether or not the Christians should celebrate Valentine's Day. I'm going to give you a note of caution, men. now is not the time to bring that Up. Oh, you know, we don't believe in celebrating Valentine's Day. Don't do that now. If you want to do that, do that in October. Don't do. When you hit February, you've got to be all in. Unless you've already started on this.

Valentine's Day's evolution includes pagan influences and modern secular commercialization

All right, let's start with the historical view of Valentine's Day.

Marnie Freeman: It is fascinating and you love, history. So let's do it.

Kevin Freeman: All right. Where did it come from? It came from St. Valentine. It's a feast day. It might have been multiple saints from that name. He was a 3rd century martyr associated with themes of Christian love, sacrifice, and possibly defending marriage. However, the holiday's evolution, including pagan influences and modern secular commercialization, lead to varying perspectives across Christian traditions. I don't see this like Halloween, though. Halloween started as a Christian holiday, but All Saints Eve. But that's kind of turned into scary and demonic.

Marnie Freeman: Right, right, right. there's a. Well, it's a deep history to get into here, but it definitely is demonic.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, but in Valentine's Day, there can be a light in front of us.

Marnie Freeman: I mean, there is some paganism in it, I think.

Kevin Freeman: Well, that's true. February 14th was established as the feast of St. Valentine by, Pope Gelasius. How do you pronounce that? G, E, L, A, S, I, U, S. How would you say that?

Marnie Freeman: That's what I'd say.

Kevin Freeman: But in 496 A.D. this is partly to supplant or Christianize the ancient Roman pagan festival of.

Marnie Freeman: You try this 1.

Kevin Freeman: Lupercalia, held 2-13-15, which involved fertility rights. Oh, that doesn't sound so good.

Marnie Freeman: Yeah, that leans towards paganism to me.

Kevin Freeman: Animal sacrifices. Not good.

Marnie Freeman: Not good.

Kevin Freeman: And matchmaking lottery. Matchmaking lottery. It's 496 A.D. oh, do you want to find your match? Let's have a lottery. I don't know. That's just. Elements seem impure or tied to pagan gods.

Marnie Freeman: Like Faunus, that 70s game show, love American.

Kevin Freeman: No. the Dating Game.

Marnie Freeman: Yeah, the Dating Game.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah.

Marnie Freeman: Sort of like that.

Kevin Freeman: And then they had the Newlywed Game, too.

Marnie Freeman: Oh, yeah. Well, they were already married, so. Newlywed. Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. On the Dating Game, you were exploring and finding out whether or not you wanted. You got to pick from your bachelor's. And then the Newlywed Game is how well do you know your spouse?

Marnie Freeman: That's right. A lot of times they didn't know each other all that well. And it was hilarious.

Kevin Freeman: It was hilarious.

145 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged every year according to CNBC

All right, so, but this, looking back, there was actually a Roman priest martyred around 269 to 270 AD under Emperor Claudius II. Ah, I got that one right. Possibly for performance, secret Christian marriages, or aiding persecuted believers. Did you know that at one point, the early church, there were people who said, well, if you get married, then you're not dedicated enough to God, and therefore you just. That's a way for a religion to die off.

Marnie Freeman: They were having secret marriages. I did know a little bit of that history.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. So. Well, they had to. So St. Valentine was the one performing those secret marriages. but if you don't have marriages, you don't have children. If you don't have children, your religion doesn't last very long. And this isn't religion per se. This is the God told us to be fruitful and multiply, but he said, do it in a marriage context. Right.

Marnie Freeman: At least they were trying to honor that.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. so I think we should take the good out of Valentine's Day. We do that with Easter. You know, Easter is based on Ishtar.

Marnie Freeman: Yes.

Kevin Freeman: And they have rabbits and eggs and, you know, it's all fertility rights. But that's not what we celebrate. We should call it, what, Resurrection Sunday.

Marnie Freeman: Resurrection Sunday. And as Christians and in our family, we would try to point to the meaning of Christ's resurrection and, those things versus the commercialism. Although we did buy a few gifts, but it was pointed at Christ.

Kevin Freeman: We hid Easter eggs and found them.

Marnie Freeman: We did do that.

Kevin Freeman: We did do that. And maybe we should have, let's say.

Marnie Freeman: Our partner Russell did that really, really well.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, he had the biggest Easter egg hunt ever, every year. So I understand. I looked at lovehopeandtruth, dot com. Should you celebrate Valentine's Day? They pretty much come down and say, no, don't celebrate. And I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I want to celebrate, God created love, including human romantic love. It's Satan that perverted it. Number two, love canon should be celebrated. Look at the Song of Solomon.

Marnie Freeman: Right.

Kevin Freeman: Number three, romantic love should be in context and the context of marriage. Number four, setting aside a day to remember and celebrate is good if we don't get caught up in the world's ways. And number five, this also would apply to Easter, better termed Resurrection Day. there are pagan notions there, but we really can't leave out the fact that Jesus did rise from the dead.

Marnie Freeman: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I love how it's also brought in, a kind of love. And maybe we're gonna talk about this later, but a kind of Love with just on a friendship level, like my. Some of my best friends, I get to celebrate them Galentine's Day. And I'm going to have a Galentine's Day with our daughter. I'm so excited she invited me. I'm so excited.

Kevin Freeman: So it is an opportunity to set aside some time and express love to those that you care about.

Marnie Freeman: Yes.

Kevin Freeman: But it should not be commercialized. And unfortunately, I think that's a bigger threat. I don't think it's the pagan traditions. I think the commercialization. I looked it up. 145 million Valentine's Day cards are exchanged every year. Americans spend $24 billion and it ranks number three according to CNBC. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine's Day, then Mother's Day, Easter, Father's Day, and Halloween. number three holiday. That's unbelievable.

Marnie Freeman: Well, I love doing the exchange. Like when we didn't have all the money that we would have liked, we would go into a store, grocery store, and we would pick out cards for each and then just give it to each other in the store and we wouldn't make the purchase. And we would do that with, other gifts in the store too, you know, just as we celebrate.

Kevin Freeman: Yep.

Marnie Freeman: Yeah.

Valentine's Day this year expected to reach brand new spending records

Kevin Freeman: So there are ways that you can have romance without just spending enormous gobs of money. but Valentine's Day this year is expected to reach brand new spending records. According to the National Retail Foundation. Here it's. It says consumer spending on Valentine's Day is expected to reach $29.1 billion according to annual survey. That would be the highest all time ever. And it's ranking right up there with the winter holidays, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Valentine's Day, Easter, Halloween. Actually twice as much spending on Valentine's Day.

Marnie Freeman: You don't have to spend that much money. There was times when we did a dollar movie, a dollar drink, and a dollar hot dog.

Kevin Freeman: How about a kiss? Have you ever had a kiss on radio?

Marnie Freeman: No.

Kevin Freeman: Here's a kiss. in fact, there's a couple of kisses. They're Hershey's kisses. What I'm handing. Valentine's Day should be about chocolate. It doesn't have to be expensive. But go buy a bag of Hershey's. Or how about those little conversation hearts?

Marnie Freeman: Oh, I love those. I like the little messages on them. And then you can get the Christian version too. I love that.

Kevin Freeman: So sweethearts and all that for Valentine's Day. It does not have to be an expensive holiday. Sometimes it should be, though occasionally it's okay to go out and Splurge and buy a nice piece of jewelry. The bottom line is, money's less important than relationships.

Marnie Freeman: That's right. And the intention behind it. Like when you write poetry for me, which you do every year.

Kevin Freeman: Every year. That is what I've given her as a Valentine's. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the Valentine's present that I have locked myself into. We got married on super bowl weekend, and so I haven't seen a Super bowl since then. I don't think we've gone to a few friend parties, but it's always time to celebrate our anniversary. And then there's Valentine's Day, so I get the quadruple whammy, Christmas anniversary, Valentine's Day, and then your birthday. Boom. All right there together, scrunched into a great short period of money. all right, we're going to talk about money when we come back from the break, and we're going to talk about how it plays a role in Valentine's Day. What we. What it should play, what it shouldn't play. And how really, romance and showing love and sharing love is the most important thing that you can do. It's okay to celebrate Valentine's Day if you have the right motives. I'll be right back with Marnie after this break.

Kevin Freeman: $29.1 billion will be spent on Valentine's Day this year

Kevin Freeman: And I'm joined by my wife, Marnie. And we were talking about $29.1 billion being, spent on Valentine's Day this year. So our portion is going to be just a little tiny bit of that.

Marnie Freeman: Drop in the bucket.

Kevin Freeman: A tiny drop in the bucket. So you've got your kisses, you might get flowers, you might get jewelry, you might get a nice card, but what you always want is a poem.

Marnie Freeman: Yeah. And you started that. I didn't ask that of you or demand that of you. But you've done that every year, faithfully. And I've just been in awe of how you tell me things. and I don't know, it just feels so honoring and romantic, and I love it. And I love it.

Kevin Freeman: And on this program, you shocked me.

Marnie Freeman: I did.

Kevin Freeman: And you read to me a poem that you'd written to me.

Marnie Freeman: You didn't even know what to do.

Kevin Freeman: I have no idea. I started to cry, I admit.

Marnie Freeman: Yes, you did. And then you changed the subject really fast.

Kevin Freeman: Okay, so here's the important thing that you understand that it doesn't have to be about money on Valentine's Day. Money is a tool you use and there are only three things you can do with your money. You can give it, spend it, or invest it. Here at Pirate Money Radio, we work to explain solutions that support all three areas in a way that promotes liberty, security and values. Patriot Mobile It's a mobile phone company. They support the Pirate Money radio program. Patriot Mobile uses US carriers, including AT&T. Verizon T Mobile. It operates on both Apple and Android phones. More information about the economic war room. Pirate Money Radio and Patriot Mobile is [email protected] AFR that's PirateMoneyRadio.com AFR all right, Marnie, let's talk Valentine's Day.

Do you have any special childhood memories of Valentine's Day

Do you have any special childhood memories of Valentine's Day? I remember what it was like in the 70s. you're a little bit younger than me, but what do you remember from, from school.

Marnie Freeman: Okay, so from school, my. One of my all time favorite things to do is we had to do those little, lunch sacks, the brown ones, and you got to decorate it. And I'm, I'm an artist, so I love to decorate and be crafty and all kinds of things. So that was one of the.

Kevin Freeman: What were they used for? What, what did you put in?

Marnie Freeman: You'd go to the store and buy the big box of individual little Valentine's cards.

Kevin Freeman: Like with Superman and Spider man and Batman. You probably.

Marnie Freeman: Star wars, all kinds of.

Kevin Freeman: You probably had, you know like little princesses and things on that. Mine were Batman, Superman and Spider Man.

Marnie Freeman: I did. I. Yeah. Princesses. Yes. Disney. A lot of Disney movies.

Kevin Freeman: Yep, yep. And then you decorate. You know, I looked. There are some first. Hey, did you see that picture I just sent you?

Marnie Freeman: Oh, yeah, yeah.

Kevin Freeman: Those are over the top. Were your mailboxes like that?

Marnie Freeman: Yes, we actually did, did that in a few classes. The mailbox type thing with the out of the, the oatmeal boxes or whatever you could find. You'd make a box and you'd make a little mail little thing and they would. You had a little slot and your friends would go by and put in there.

Kevin Freeman: I do think. Do they still do that? I don't know.

Marnie Freeman: I don't know.

Kevin Freeman: it's been, been a while since our girls were young and since we did that. But the class parties were, were kind of amazing. You'd have cupcakes and cookies and soda. It was. I like that. It was a big sugar day.

Marnie Freeman: Well, and of course the candy, the little conversation hearts and who like to and all and who were your good friends and it was fun I actually looked forward to it like Christmas.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And so when you look at it, those conversation hearts. Kiss me, lovebird, love bug. Wink, wink, true love. my hero giggle. I wonder if those have changed over time because these seem a little more modern than the ones I was remembering.

Marnie Freeman: I remember. Exactly. And then they had bigger hearts, too. They started making those bigger conversation hearts that you could eat, and those were fantastic.

Kevin Freeman: I liked the ones that were white, that were wintergreen, or maybe pink, that were wintergreen flavored. They were my favorite. And I. Darn it, I didn't like that one. it's like a box of chocolates.

Marnie Freeman: You can go through one at a time until you find the one you want.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, remember those big heart shaped boxes with the individual Russell Stovers and others? Those were delicious. But you wanted to get a caramel and not something that was ooey yuck.

Marnie Freeman: Exactly.

Kevin Freeman: There were some ooey yuck ones in there.

Marnie Freeman: More truffley.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah.

Marnie Freeman: And my adult palette has changed. I don't mind those now.

Kevin Freeman: I like the caramels and I like the nuts and I like the. I even like the coconut ones. My sister hated the coconut ones, though. She'd take a bite of it and I don't like this. And like, I'm not eating after you don't give it to me.

Marnie Freeman: We would get chocolate. We would get the chocolate bunny from my parents, almost every year. A big one.

Kevin Freeman: That's Easter.

Marnie Freeman: You got one from Valentine's Day. Sorry, that was Easter. But we would get a big, huge Hershey Kiss. Like, huge.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, really? Did you shave it off? How did you eat that?

Marnie Freeman: No. And it was m. For the most part. It was solid, too.

Kevin Freeman: Did you gnaw on it? How'd you eat it?

Marnie Freeman: I mean, we'd cut it off. We would cut it. We each got one, me and my sister. And that was fun.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. Valentine's Day.

 Valentine's Day memories with Marnie

I have good memories from childhood. my memories in high school, which we'll talk about after a break. Junior, high and high school. Not necessarily as much fun as a kid. It was all fun candy and games. But, you know, the older you get, then it gets little more serious and competitive and, you know, who's going to be your date on Valentine's Day? Well, for now, for the rest of eternity, my date is you, Marnie. All right, we'll cover this and more when we come back after this break.

Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio. Helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.

Kevin Freeman reflects on Valentine's Day over the last 30 years

Welcome Back with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: And I'm joined by my valentine. Over the last 30 years or so, and hopefully for the next 30 years or so, God willing. Marnie, you know, we're talking about Valentine's Day. It's fun and games. In elementary school, I loved it. It was fun. It was like you had a day off classes and you got to decorate your mailboxes and share candy and all that. But in junior high, it got a little mean.

Marnie Freeman: It was more difficult in junior high.

Kevin Freeman: And high school and high school, because.

Marnie Freeman: Your heart's really getting into it with, you know, the opposite sex.

Kevin Freeman: Is this the one do I love? You know, in high school, this is it. This is. You know, I'm thankful. I thank God for unanswered prayers. I was not best matched with the people I dated in high school. I'm glad that I'm not with them now, and they're probably extremely glad they're not with me. God's got better choices. And sometimes, you know, we know, we hear about high school sweethearts occasionally, though.

Marnie Freeman: Oh, yeah, well, they are. There are a few that we know that got married and are, you know, have kids and grandkids.

Kevin Freeman: Yep. For me, that was not the case. it was serious. I do remember a date with my girlfriend at the time. Went to Steak and Ale. You remember Steak and Ale?

Marnie Freeman: Yes.

Kevin Freeman: It was very upscale. No, I don't think so, but it was very upscale, in Tulsa. And it was a big money investment for me. I don't remember the date that we had, but I do remember the food. And I.

Marnie Freeman: Well, that says something.

Kevin Freeman: I actually found. Well, you know, and it's been a long time. But they had. Unbelievable. I pulled the menu up when I went to Steak and Ale on my Valentine's Day. You could get prime rib, which was the top of the top of the top for me, the best. $6 and 45 cents.

Marnie Freeman: $6 and 45 cents for prime rib? Are you. Are, you kidding me?

Kevin Freeman: You could get a filet for 6.95. You can get steak and lobster for $8 and 25 cents. And this was a good, good restaurant.

Marnie Freeman: Can we go back to those prices?

Kevin Freeman: it would be nice. I. I think they're out of business for a reason. You could get an Irish gym.

Marnie Freeman: yeah, it's called Inflation.

Kevin Freeman: A side baked potato was 60 cents. And then it says, please ask to see our children's menu. All entrees include hot bread and salad. Can you believe that? That's inflation right there. That's Inflation. We left the gold standard in 1971. Look what happened. Priced in gold, the Lobster dinner was 1/25th of an ounce of gold that year. So while a lobster dinner costs 10 times as much as that today, in dollar terms, the same 1/25 of an ounce is really worth about $175 today.

Marnie Freeman: So it would have kept up.

Kevin Freeman: Could you buy a Lobster dinner for $175? Even at the most expensive restaurants I've ever eaten at, you could get a decent. I mean, that's probably two lobster dinners for that price, right? So.

Glint allows gold holdings to be used for everyday purchases

All right. Support for this program comes from Glint. It's a financial technology service offering a debit card and mobile app that enables users to access gold holdings for everyday purchases. Because you can't walk into Steak and Ale number one, they don't exist. But you can't walk into a restaura and plop down a gold coin and buy yourself dinner. But Glint allows gold holdings to be used for everyday purchases. With Glint, users maintain ownership of allocated physical gold. It's stored in a managed vault at the time of a transaction. Gold is sold in real time from the vault to cover the purchase amount in local currency. Glint offers an alternative way to store and use the value. Combining gold and silver with modern payment infrastructure, Glint clients can monitor their gold balance, view transaction history, manage their account through the Glint app available on major mobile platform. You want to learn more. More details about how vaulted physical gold can be used as money are [email protected] Gold247 Again, that's glintpay.com Gold247 Glint providing access to gold for modern spending. And it gives, you husbands a chance to maybe preserve a little wealth so that you can have a very nice Valentine's Day next year and the year after.

Marnie Freeman: Well, they could give Glint as a gift, a Glint account. Little bit of gold in it.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, yeah, Girls like gold for maybe in the form of jewelry, but they certainly are, right.

Marnie Freeman: I think they would like this, too.

Marnie remembers her favorite Valentine's Day memories

Kevin Freeman: All right, Marnie, to be honest, I don't really want to hear about any of your high school Valentine's dates. for me, there wasn't a really good Valentine's Day. You know, other than those as a kid with a family and everything. Until you and I met.

Marnie Freeman: Well, one of my best, favorite Valentine's Days was when you sent me a gift basket with a Beanie Baby in it. Remember the Beanie Babies?

Kevin Freeman: Yeah.

Marnie Freeman: We weren't married yet, but it was, it spoke to me. You wrote a nice A nice letter, and it was just wonderful chocolates.

Kevin Freeman: Beanie Baby for Valentine's Day. That's taking me back. You know, those things are going to be worth a fortune. We're going to put them in the attic, and they're not worth anything. But the gold coins that were put up in the attic, those were pretty nice to find. If you can open up a gold coin. All right, Mari, we need to take another break. When we come back, I want to share our surprise wedding story. Is that okay?

Marnie Freeman: That's perfect.

Kevin Freeman: All right, you want to hear about a surprise wedding, A bride who didn't know she was getting married? Then you need to stay tuned right after this break, and you'll hear it.

Kevin Dobson and Marnie had a surprise wedding three decades ago

Mike Carter: Welcome to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevan Freeman, helping you unpack the economic headlines and providing real money solutions.

Kevin Freeman: Where can I go that you do not invade my every waking thought with dreams? I know I'm already lost in the rapture delight of being with you. While awake, I face a different challenge to balance the joy and the sorrow that I feel. You remember that. Marnie, my wife, we're celebrating. We're not talking money today, although money is involved, as we just shared. We're talking Valentine's Day in celebration of romantic love. That I just quoted was the opening of a love poem I wrote for Marnie nearly three decades ago. It's become a Valentine's Day tradition ever since. I write her a poem. That first one was actually picked up and published in a poetry book, I think in 1999 or the year 2000.

Marnie Freeman: It was amazing. Thank you.

Kevin Freeman: I had it memorized. I quoted it from my heart. And it wasn't short. It was long, very long. And I memorized the entire thing. I can pick it up a little bit. I looked for the poetry book because I sent that off and said, I wonder if this is Angus. So there was a poetry dot com. So I just uploaded it and they sent me back that they chose to publish it.

Marnie Freeman: It was. Well, it was that beautiful. It was amazing.

Kevin Freeman: We bought the book and I don't know where it is. Somewhere probably in the attic or.

Marnie Freeman: No, it's actually on a bookshelf.

Kevin Freeman: Do you know where it is?

Marnie Freeman: Yes.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, man. I should have asked you before you got. I would have pulled it down. All right, I memorized it. I shared it for you the very first time at her wedding. And that was just one of many surprises you were in store for that day. let's back up. How did we get there that we had a surprise wedding? Because we've already established we did. You and I dated, we were engaged, and we broke our engagement to make certain we both wanted to be sure this 100% was God's will.

Marnie Freeman: And there were some extenuating circumstances and some difficult circumstances that we separately had to walk through. And so that we just had to do that first.

Kevin Freeman: We did. There were legitimate reasons for wanting to be sure.

Marnie Freeman: Did I say difficult? It was difficult.

Kevin Freeman: It was difficult.

Marnie Freeman: So it wasn't easy.

Kevin Freeman: So we sought God for a year. And Marnie, you heard earlier, right?

Marnie Freeman: I was. I'd been praying about this. At about six months after we'd been broken up, I felt like the Lord laid on my heart and said that we would be married. And I was like, well, I'm not telling him. You tell him. And I also had a friend call me and say. And she knew that we had broken up. And she said, I think you and Kevan are supposed to get married. And in third friend, all unrelated to each other. And, tell me that. And so it was basically God confirmed it for me. And then she asked me to go pick out a wedding dress. She wanted to go help me do that. So we actually did go pick out.

Kevin Freeman: A wedding dress, which is crazy and insane. And yet I'm so grateful that you did.

Marnie Freeman: well, you know, when you hear God, you hear God.

Kevin Freeman: It took me a little longer to hear God, I admit, and I'm sorry for that. It's not that I didn't love you. but there were circumstances that we had to work through, and I was pouting, and I couldn't figure out. I was sad all the time. What do you want from me, God? I want to know what you're willing is. I want to know. And I remember being at a conference in Naples, Florida, and Tom Clancy was speaking, the great author. And he is a great author. I mean, that guy was one of the biggest bestsellers of all time. And they still have Jack Ryan and all that from Tom Clancy. But he was speaking, and my friend came up to me and said, hey, let's go meet Tom Clancy and get his signature, autograph. And I said, I don't want to meet some stupid author. Now. That was me pouting. Yes, he's a stupid author. And so she asked, it's like, kevin, you're pouting all the time. So who would you like to meet? And I said, you know somebody who could help me? I'd like to meet Dr. James Dobson.

Marnie Freeman: Because you were still wrestling with. Do I need to be with Marnie? What Are you saying Lord?

Kevin Freeman: Right? I wanted to hear God, and he's a Christian psychologist, and, you know, he's passed away recently, but he. But he was the guy that wrote the book on love and raising family and all that. And I thought he could help me.

Marnie Freeman: That's what I love about you, though.

Jim Dobson wanted advice from someone who would seek the Lord first

That was what I wanted. Someone who would seek the Lord first, period, for direction in life.

Kevin Freeman: You don't want to do the opposite of what God wants. It doesn't work out well.

Marnie Freeman: I've been there, done that. It doesn't turn out well.

Kevin Freeman: I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know that if you do what God wants, it works out better for you. So I wanted his advice. And we were at this big conference. There were 600 people or so there. And we've been to the conference together since then. But this one was in Naples, Florida. And in a banquet room of 600 people. My friend Martinez said, you want to meet Dobson? Grabbed my hands. And she said, father, in the name of Jesus, get this boy to Jim Dobson. And she threw my hands down, walked off because she was mad at me, because I wouldn't go with her to meet Tom Clancy.

Marnie Freeman: Because you were pouting.

Kevin Freeman: I was pouting. but that night, banquet room, 600 people, assigned seating. And I had no idea. Nobody told me Dr. Dobson was at this.

Marnie Freeman: He was actually at this conference.

Kevin Freeman: He was at the conference, and I was seated one person away from him.

Marnie Freeman: At the same table.

Kevin Freeman: At the same table, one person away. And the person in between me and him was his pop, who was going to fly him home that night. All right. So I waited to talk to him, and I got no chance. Steve Forbes walks up. I'm running for president. Dr. Dobson, would you support me? And they had a nice, long conversation.

Marnie Freeman: He's the kingmaker of politics.

Kevin Freeman: Dobson, yes. And Steve Forbes gets up and gives this speech to 600 people. And then following that, vice president, former vice President, under George H.W. bush, Dan Quayle walks up and says, Dr. Dobson, I'd like to talk to you. I'm running for president. I don't care what you're doing. I want to talk to him. God put him here, and I want to talk to him.

Marnie Freeman: Everybody wanted to talk to him.

Kevin Freeman: Everybody wanted to talk to him, but he wasn't talking to him. So after the dinner and after the speeches, dessert was being served. It was set in front of him. And, he pushed the dessert into the middle of the table and said, thank you for having dinner with me tonight. To our whole table. But I'm going to fly home now. You ready, Jim, to take me home? And Jim, the pilot said, sure, Dr. Dobson, I'm ready to do it. I said, stop, stop, stop, stop. Dr. Dobson, please hold on. God put you at this table in my life right here to answer a question. I want to know. I want to know God's will on this subject. And he said, I'm sorry, son, I don't have time. I have to go. I promised my wife I'd be home tonight. And he walked out. And at that moment, I was so disappointed. God had teased me and set me up. And I'm sitting there and I'm feeling the emotion even now. What is this, God? You expected me to interrupt the vice president and burst in? That's not how you work. You supernaturally put him here. And now you're just teasing me. And I was sad, and I was moping, and I was pacing and I was muttering to God. I was angry with God. The only time in my life I've ever felt angry with God. I was angry. Why did you do this to me? And I turned in tears, And I saw Dr. Dobson, who had left the.

Marnie Freeman: Building all the way left in his car, driving to the airport. Left?

Kevin Freeman: He walked back in.

Marnie Freeman: Yes.

Kevin Freeman: And I said, why are you here? And he said, darndest thing. We got out there headed to the airport and called in our flight plan. And they told us the airport was shut down. A fog fel.

Marnie Freeman: Suddenly.

Kevin Freeman: Suddenly, out of nowhere, no fog. It fell. And so they said, we don't know if planes are getting out tonight. So I came back. I thought I'd get my room back and talk to you. What do you want to talk about? And I thought, God, you did this. So I shared the whole story. I shared everything about us, the difficulties.

Marnie Freeman: That we had gone through prior to us. And.

Marnie Freeman planned a surprise wedding from m. Hong Kong

Kevin Freeman: And how long. And he asked one question. And I said, son, how long has she waited for you to hear from God? I said, well, about a year. He said, a woman who waited for you a year so that you would hear from God. He said, look, I don't know much, but I know this. If I were you, I'd marry her on the spot. That's a woman who cares about what God wants and about what's best for you. And. And I flew to Hong Kong. I had a beta conference in Hong Kong. I planned a surprise wedding from m. Hong Kong, with our friends back in Monterey, Carmel. And I called and I said, marnie, would you come out to California? So we can pray about this, and you can work for Carmel Creamery, our ice cream store that I owned part of at the time, gift store.

Marnie Freeman: And I was actually already doing that work. But we didn't, we didn't speak for almost a year.

Kevin Freeman: Almost a year. We saw each other once or twice, but then I picked you up at the airport, and I said, we've got dinner at Fresh Cream restaurant in Monterey, which is, by the way, one of the number one top rated restaurants in the world at the time. In fact, I looked at it. They won, award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine, nine times in a row, and 26 out of 28 points from Zagat's North California guy. This is the expensive restaurant. I invited you there. We had all our friends. You were shocked that we had all our friends in the room. Private room.

Marnie Freeman: I had actually gone to buy a wedding dress and all that. And when I told my mom, I said, I'm leaving to California. I'm going to go see Kevan, and I'm not coming back.

Kevin Freeman: So you knew I knew, but I didn't.

Marnie Freeman: But you'd never said anything.

Kevin Freeman: You knew and I knew, but I didn't know you knew.

Marnie Freeman: Exactly.

Kevin Freeman: All right, so I proposed. I recited the poem. We had a surprise wedding. And I remember there was a Swedish woman that you met in the bathroom.

Marnie Freeman: Yes. And she was like, oh, I'm so romantic. What are you doing? And I was putting on my wedding dress that you had brought there. There's so many stories behind that. But she said, oh, you're getting married tonight here? I said, yes. And, she said, when did you get engaged? And I said, tonight. And she's like, oh, my gosh. How well do you know this man?

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, that was fun. She then went out and told the entire restaurant, and Japanese tourists from the main dining room burst in, taking pictures of me. We want to meet the romantic man and taking all these pictures of me. So there's more pictures of our wedding, likely in, Tokyo, than there are in our house. so many pictures. But we had a reception of the Carmel Creamery. we went back to the restaurant, and they kept the flowers. Ten years later, they'd have the flowers.

Marnie Freeman: Oh, it was almost 20 years.

Kevin Freeman: Wow. So we were so young when we got married. You still look young and beautiful.

Marnie Freeman: Oh, thank you.

Kevin Freeman: I've aged quite a bit, and my hair color has changed substantially. yes, yours has changed.

Marnie Freeman: Mine doesn't change.

Kevin Freeman: And Dr. Dobson followed up, sent his assistant to check up on us, and sent us a Sign book as a wedding present. While that segment flew by, people tell us we should make a movie of that story. We're going to take another break, and when we come back, we'll talk romantic movies for Valentine's Day. I'll be right back with Marnie Freeman talking romance after this break. We'll be right back.

Kevin Freeman tells the story of his surprise wedding on Pirate Money Radio

Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: And we just told the story of our surprise wedding. Mrs. Freeman had no idea that I, was going to propose and get married that night. She thought that we would get married. She didn't know it was happening that night.

Marnie Freeman: I thought we were getting. Get engaged quickly because literally, the Lord already told me I wasn't some psycho nutcase like, trying to follow you around and doing all that. It, was prayerful. I was. I fasted and prayed for a year. Lord, what do you want? What is this something. Anyway, he made it clear it's successful.

Kevin Freeman: You hear surprise wedding, and you think, oh, my gosh, that's impetuous. It was the opposite of impetuous. We dated for three years and waited another year to seek God. So we really knew that. We knew that we knew, but we didn't share that with each other until that night and we got married. And we've been happily married ever since.

Marnie Freeman: That's right. Well, because we know that. We know that, we know we do. God brought us together.

Kevin Freeman: People tell us we should make a movie of that.

Marnie Freeman: I think we should.

Kevin Freeman: And there are a lot of Valentine's Day romantic movies. I asked Grok to list some of these. Have you seen some of these movies? These are the timeless classics that they listen to. Casablanca. Have you seen it?

Marnie Freeman: I haven't. I've seen bits and pieces of it.

Kevin Freeman: All right, we gotta watch that. It's a wartime romance.

Marnie Freeman: It's you and his Korean War. Yeah.

Kevin Freeman: And it's Ingrid Berman and Humphrey Barger. So we gotta, we gotta look at that. The famous line, here's looking at you, kid. It's the gold standard for bittersweet romance. So we gotta watch that Gone with the Wind. Have you seen Gone with the Wind?

Marnie Freeman: Bits and pieces.

Kevin Freeman: Bits and pieces. Okay, so we live in the South. We've gotta have this epic Civil War, era passion, frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a darn. And then Roman Holiday, which is a really fun one. That one I have seen. It's Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. And Audrey Hepburn is.

Marnie Freeman: Well, who doesn't love Audrey Hepburn?

Kevin Freeman: Exactly. It's fairy tale story of a princess and a journalist. Falling in Love in Rome. It's beautifully set and everything. All right, so those are the classics, then. How about Titanic? You've seen that. I know.

Marnie Freeman: Yes. several times. I mean, the history of Titanic.

Kevin Freeman: It's a tearjerker. Yes. And the Notebook. That's another tearjerker.

Marnie Freeman: Very much a tearjerker. My dad went through dementia, and it just even brings it more home.

Kevin Freeman: It is hard, but the love that outlasts when they get to know each other, they're in love again. And every day they wake up to a fresh start. How about An Affair to Remember? I don't think you've ever seen that.

Marnie Freeman: I have not, no.

Kevin Freeman: That is a cruise ship romance with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr inspiring Sleepless in Seattle.

Marnie Freeman: Yes. Okay. I love Sleepless in Seattle.

Kevin Freeman: We'll meet at the top of the Empire State Building a year from today, and he can't get there. And, you know, remember when I took you to the Empire State Building?

Marnie Freeman: Yes. It was romantic, by the way.

Kevin Freeman: It was romantic. It was fun. We were newly married. But one thing I did learn that I did not understand because I would traipse all over NewSong York City. I had to walk everywhere, and you'd hop on the subway. You take cabs. I did everything possible. But I learned that cute shoes are not generally comfortable.

Marnie Freeman: No, no. You don't want to be wearing high heels traipsing around all of that, too.

Kevin Freeman: But you were, even with young feet, and you were, like, wanting to take your shoes off at the top of the Empire State Building. I remember that.

We're going to talk about Valentine's Day from a Christian perspective

All right, we got to get the pirate theme in here. One of my favorites, the Princess Bride and the Dread Pirate Roberts.

Marnie Freeman: Roberts. As you wish.

Kevin Freeman: Great romance story. You had some others that you loved?

Marnie Freeman: Well, at least one that would be Parent Trap. I'm kind of down the Parent Trap path, because that is so romantic to me.

Kevin Freeman: Oh, Parent Trap. Where they split the girls and. Yeah, I mean, the story's crazy.

Marnie Freeman: Who's gonna do that? But it was romantic nonetheless.

Kevin Freeman: you go off to London, I go off to California and make my fortune. But it was set in Carmel, California. It was the original one, at least.

Marnie Freeman: And you used to live there.

Kevin Freeman: And I did live there. And. And yeah, but that Paratrap is a great. There are a lot of great romantic movies, and they're feel good movies. Some of them are tearjerkers. Some of them are timeless classics. But romance is a part of who we are. and it's true whether you're Christian or not a Christian.

Marnie Freeman: And even if you don't have a significant other. Even the fun of just a Galentine's or just your friends. That's powerful, powerful stuff.

Kevin Freeman: Celebrating that we care for another human being is a good thing.

Marnie Freeman: Absolutely.

Kevin Freeman: And it's a Christian thing. And everybody's got their stories, their romantic periods and things. And sometimes it's good Valentine's Day and sometimes I've had some sad, sad Valentine's Day, all before I met you, of course. All right, so we've learned a lot about Valentine's Day. we're going to talk a little bit more about the Christian perspective because we have a group of Christians who say you should not celebrate this particular day. But does that mean you shouldn't celebrate romance or love or friendship? Because there are a lot of different types of love. There's Eros, of course, but there's, Agape and Filio. And yes, we're going to be talking about Valentine's Day from a Christian perspective. I'm here with my wife Marnie. We've shared a lot of memories over the decades that we've been together and we're going to cover a little bit more from God's perspective when we come back out after this break.

Mike Carter: Pirate Money Radio, helping you give, spend and invest in ways that align with liberty, security and values.

Kevin Freeman: What have we learned about Valentine's Day from a Christian perspective

Welcome back with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: And I'm joined by my valentine, Marnie, the love of my life, wife of nearly three decades. We've been together half my life and more than half yours because you're so young. but what have we learned about Valentine's Day from a Christian perspective? What do you think?

Marnie Freeman: Honestly, if there is a Valentine's Day from a Christian perspective, it's going to be for me that God, God sent his son as the best Valentine's gift I could ever have.

Kevin Freeman: It is absolutely a love. And the bride, the bride of Christ is the wife of the husband. Right? Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church. So here are some points. God invented romance and he has romanced us. We love him because he first loved us.

Marnie Freeman: That's right.

Kevin Freeman: The kindness of God leads us to repentance sentence. It's God's love that draws us unto him. So God invented romance, but it has an important context. Romance is not to be used willy nilly. It is for a husband and wife in the context of marriage.

Marnie Freeman: Yes.

Kevin Freeman: Okay, second point.

Marnie Freeman: Good to celebrate and remember that love. I mean, God likes memorials, memories, he.

Kevin Freeman: Likes to celebrate feastings, celebrations. So Saint Valentine, if he was a Roman, was a Christian, saint, and he realized that there was a false doctrine in the church that people should not marry. But that's not what the Bible says. Some people are not meant to be married, and God's called them to that. And they can celebrate their love with Christ, but others are meant to be married, and God's called us to that. And the offspring, the fruit of those marriages, is phenomenal. It's great people. So we need to celebrate. And remember, I, think we also learned that, like every holiday, Valentine's Day can be overly commercialized.

Marnie Freeman: Right? Just spending too much money. And really, it's about the heart and actual love versus running down the street to get a rose, just to get a rose.

Kevin Freeman: It's, I mean, it's the thought that counts a lot of times. And it's, you can go out and overspend on Valentine's Day and then put yourself in great financial challenge or difficulty and like, why did we do that?

Marnie Freeman: Don't do that. Go pick flowers all out of the park.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, well, don't be stealing flowers. All right? And we don't want to celebrate demonic traditions in Valentine's Day. And there are some things that are in there, but there's a role for the church, and the church should be talking love.

There are some Bible verses on romance emphasizing selfless, patient love

All right. There are some Bible verses on romance, emphasizing selfless, patient, and enduring love, defining it through actions like kindness, trust, and protection with key passages. So here's one. 1 Corinthians 13, 4 7. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, is not proud. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. That's a good one.

Marnie Freeman: I love that one.

Kevin Freeman: And how about 1st John 4:16?

Marnie Freeman: God is love, and whoever abides in love, abides in God, and God abides in him. How crazy is that? That's amazing.

Kevin Freeman: If you want to show who God is, love someone else. Yes, that's how you sacrificially, not selfishly. Alright. And First Corinthians 16:14. Let all that you do be done in love. It should be Valentine's Day every day.

Marnie Freeman: Absolutely.

Kevin Freeman: We should be loving people as if it's special and remembering every single day.

Marnie Freeman: Even if it's a smile or. Can I help you to the car? Can I? Whatever you can do that all that.

Kevin Freeman: You do be done in love. All right, here's some verses for spouses and couples. Ephesians 5:25. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Here's Proverbs 5, 18 and 19. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth. Be intoxicated always in her love. If there's ever a Valentine's verse, that's it. Be intoxicated, be drunk on her love and show that to her, too. And of course, Song of Solomon. seven, six. How beautiful and pleasant you are, O loved one, with all your delight. So there's a romance in scripture.

Marnie Freeman: Absolutely.

Kevin Freeman: But it's designed for marriage. Exactly. All right. Love and unity versus on, God's love and our foundations. They're all in here. It's been fun. It's fun to stay connected and to reconnect on Valentine's Day, but we need to make everyday Valentine's Day, don't we?

Marnie Freeman: Every single day.

Kevin Freeman: Speaking of staying connected, you can stay with us, Connected, and follow us on X at Pirate Money X to get the latest information and topics that we talk about on Pirate Money Radio. You can learn more about our podcasts and videos by visiting piratemoneyradio.com or following us at Apple or Spotify in their podcasts. It's so glad to have you with me, Marnie. It's so fun to celebrate.

Marnie Freeman: Thank you. I love being here.

Kevin Freeman: AFR listeners, stay tuned after the break for a bonus segment from our whole team to your family, have a happy Valentine's Day. Celebrate it in the love of Christ with the people that mean most to you. God bless you. Happy Valentine's Day.

Kevin Freeman: I'm trying to keep up the romantic surprises

Mike Carter: Welcome back to Pirate Money Radio with your host, Kevan Freeman.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah, this is our bonus section for AFR only. Marnie, you're with me. I'm trying to keep up the romantic surprises.

Marnie Freeman: And you do well, so I. I love it. I'm on my toes all the time.

Kevin Freeman: Do you remember what we agreed when we first got married?

Marnie Freeman: We would never lie to each other, except for one thing.

Kevin Freeman: What's the one thing we can lie.

Marnie Freeman: For the cause of? Romantic surprise.

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. And. And it's verifiable. You can go back and see. You lied to me about that. Yeah. Ah, I lied to you because I wanted to surprise you with. With a trip to some place or something.

Marnie Freeman: Special restaurant.

Kevin Freeman: Yes.

Kevin Freeman says lying is a sin and he doesn't like surprises

All right, so, I don't like to lie.

Marnie Freeman: Well, you don't do very well with it. Even in romantic surprise, you smirk, you give it away.

Kevin Freeman: I know. And you catch me every time I try and surprise you. And so I remember when we were having a baby, we had the first one and we both knew it was going to be a girl. but the second one you're like, I want to be surprised.

Marnie Freeman: I wanted to be surprised. You did not. So the doctor told you what we were having, and I didn't want to know, so he didn't tell me.

Kevin Freeman: So I had a hard time with that. I had to find some way I was smirked the whole time. So I would say to you, it's a boy. It's a girl. I mean, a boy. I mean, a girl.

Marnie Freeman: Yes.

Kevin Freeman: And I had to just so. Because I knew you'd guess it or figure it out, I went shopping. I bought clothing in both blue and pink and purple and green, just so we would have different. Different colors so you wouldn't get thrown off.

Marnie Freeman: Yeah, you kept me on my toes on that one. I'm like, what is going on here?

Kevin Freeman: Yeah. So I had to do that because it's the only way I could game out. Because you can read me like a book. You know when I'm telling the truth and you know when I'm lying. It's like Santa Claus or something here. but really, lying is a sin. Right? And we taught. We taught our kids there are no exceptions. You never lie under any circumstances.

Marnie Freeman: Okay, so one of the girls lied to me on something. Really? And she. I said, just wait till your dad gets home because we're going to talk about this, because you do not lie for any reason. And she looked at me, and she was little, and she goes, mom, what about Rahab and the spies? And I was like, okay, are you hiding spies today?

Kevin Freeman: But she did find the exception to the rule.

Marnie Freeman: She did. In two seconds.

Kevin Freeman: And God congratulated Rahab for what Rahab had done. But again, it fits that context. It is. Lying is not good. Bearing false witness is against the scripture. But there are times.

Marnie Freeman: There are times.

Kevin Freeman: Very rare circumstances.

Marnie Freeman: Well, even in history, our current history proves that there are times when you need to actually.

Kevin Freeman: But God guide someone or whatever. Yes, God does. God judges our hearts. We judge by the outward appearance and the actions. God judges by the hearts. And I'm not suggesting don't go home and say, hey, Kevan. And Marnie said it's okay to lie. Because we're not saying that unless you've prearranged it so that you could celebrate. Like, I've surprised you a couple of times on your birthday with a surprise party. Right. So.

Marnie Freeman: All right.

Kevin Freeman: I hope you've enjoyed our time together.

Marnie Freeman: I have. It's been awesome going down.

Kevin Freeman: The reminiscing, the 30 years, plus the hour we've had here on Pirate Money Radio. We've had. I've just endure. I'm in the middle of the four month gauntlet of gift giving. December, January, February, March. There's something every month for me to give you a gift. Then we get to tax day in April before family birthdays start up again. All right. I guess Uncle Sam, I'm paying him in April, so it's family. All right. You have questions, Prayer needs comments. Email [email protected] Listen to us wherever you get your podcast. It's Kevan Freeman joined by Marnie Freeman for Pirate Money Radio.

Kevin and Marnie celebrate Valentine’s Day with a faith-centered look at romance, from the history of St. Valentine to practical, budget-friendly ways to show love. Hear their unforgettable surprise wedding story, thoughtful takes on commercialism vs. meaning, and favorite romantic films with a playful pirate twist. Insightful guidance for couples, friends, and families on honoring love within Christian values. Timely tips for intentional gifting, poetry, and memories that matter more than money.