Birthdays

I HATE BIRTHDAYS! There, I said it. I know all the good things about God ordaining the special day that we were born, and Psalm 139, and I don't mean to sin against God by saying I hate birthdays but they've always been disappointing. I don't know if it's my expectations, which I couldn't even tell you what my expectations are. All I know is the older I get the faster time goes by and I end up feeling like I've wasted a year by not getting the things I wanted to get accomplished. Now I don't want to say that all of my birthdays have been bad. I remember my 49th was a special treat where friends threw me a surprise party and BOY was I surprised! It was one of those moments when you look your worse and all kinds of people show up at your door! A dear lady, Sara, made me this wonderful poster sharing about my life and work using candy bars.







I think my saddest one was when I turned 21. Life was not going well and then a few weeks after my birthday my father died.
I even thought this last year was going to be a monumental year. I was looking for God to do amazing things through me and with me. I felt it was special because I turned 50 and my birthday fell on the exact same day I was born 50 years ago. I must say the last year WAS monumental but it was negative monumental things that happened in my life... what to say or do?
Well, this morning I think the Lord was sick and tired of my bad attitude about birthdays and decided to put a stop to it. You see, since my return here a couple of weeks ago I've been working on devotions with the staff concerning "Attitudes of the Heart." I feel sometimes that, although these people are Christians, they just don't have a passion for the work. I decided before I did further training on working with the children that I would first, with the help of the Lord, do some exercises in heart surgery. It has been going pretty well and so far the staff have been thinking about it and questioning my motive.
Tomorrow, I am training the staff on using puppets again and it's also our day for the next step in our heart attitude lesson. I decided to look online for some new skits and found one listed under "heart." JACKPOT! I thought what a great way to convince the staff of their heart attitude by doing a skit with puppets! Then I read the skit. Here's an excerpt:
S - "I can thank him that I'm not as old as you! (ouch)
V - "Yes, and I'll thank Him that I'm still getting older. (double ouch)
S - "Why would you do that?"
V - "If I didn't get older, I'd be dead. Plus that gives me more time to live for Jesus." (slam dunk!)
S - "Oh, yea"
V - "If you want to feel better all the time then remember in Proverbs 17:22 it says a cheerful heart is good medicine."
I did laugh after I read that realizing that God does have a great sense of humor. I'm trying to preach to my staff when some areas in my own life need fixing, not that I thought I was perfect, but some things are more obvious than others!
So, what am I doing this year for my birthday? Celebrating(!!!) and making a list of all of the things I am thankful for! So join me on Thursday, August 5th, in thanking God for the last year He gave me (difficult as it was), because I've learned and grown from it, and I know Him more than I did the year before. Looking forward to what He has in store for me in the next year! May HE be glorified in it all! Happy birthday to me!
(p.s. I'll give you my list after the 5th!)