Birthday Reflection 2022 (09/15/22)

Written June 2022 

Tomorrow I will be 56.  There have been some difficulties to overcome in my life, but today and each day moving forward, I want to focus on the positive things for which I am so grateful.  Living in a painful past breeds sorrow and resentment.  Living to be the best I can be today and planning for the future lends hope and joy. 

This morning, I was able to go to my very own sunflower garden and cut flowers to take to my 85 year old aunt for her birthday.🌻. I was able to do that because God blessed me with a husband that plants seeds for me every year for seven summers now. God also caused the sun and the rain to nourish those seeds so they would grow.  He provided the property for us to purchase to plant those seeds and the financial ability to be able to purchase the land.  

I am thankful that I am still able bodied and healthy.  I am thankful for the above mentioned aunt that has always shown me nothing but love. I am thankful for my husband and family members and the time I spend with them.🥰  I am thankful for true friends who celebrate the good times and pull me up when I’m down and pray for me. 💛

I am thankful to live in what is still a free country where I can talk about Jesus, vote, bear arms to protect myself, family and home.   

I am thankful that I have read the Word of God in its entirety multiple times and will continue to, because there is never a time to stop reading the Word.  This sounds like a brag but isn’t meant that way at all.  I am encouraged to know what it says and thankful for the Creator who loves us and made a way for us to spend eternity with Him.  The way to love Him better is to learn more about Him and keep His Word in my heart.  ✝️

Speaking of the Creator, Thank you God for the birds I can hear singing, the geese I see easing past the water’s edge, the breeze I feel on my skin, the fresh air I am breathing, and the green leaves dancing in the limbs of the trees.  God, you are glorious and I can’t give you enough praise.   I reach my arms and hands up to the sky as a daughter to her father who wishes to be picked up and hugged and made to feel secure as tears fall down my face in your Holy Presence. You are the best love. True love.  Eternal love.  Undeniable love. Fierce love.  I am in the palm of your hand now, Abba.  Mold me and show me Your ways.  Your path. Your will.  Let me spend the rest of my days loving and serving You.  Let me be found watching and ready when you come back.  

The above reflection is shared for the sole purpose of sharing how beautiful the experience with the One and Only Holy God brings such joy and change in our lives.  It is not meant to be anything different than encouragement for you and for myself every time I re-read it.