Celebrate You

I’m writing you this blog on my birthday. Happy Birthday to me! At my age birthdays are a mixed bag of emotions. There’s the wide-eyed six year old in me, still a bit excited about the prospect of presents and cake and candles. But there is also the realistic sixty something year old trying to be excited in spite of the prospect of more sagging body parts and social security checks coming in the mail. All those things that remind me life is moving very fast.

There are two things I like to do on my birthday.

I like to reminisce about birthdays past. Since my birthday is in August I never got to celebrate it in school so I felt very deprived. That was back before half birthdays were ‘invented’. Now kids get to bring a treat to school and get sung to and fussed over six months before their birthday. But what I did get to do because of my summer birthday was to have a birthday party at the local mini golf course. I was queen of the greens for a day!

I also remember my surprise party when I turned sixteen thrown by my parents which was a bit embarrassing but made me feel very loved. And the year my grown children threw a Family Reunion-themed birthday party for me. It was a joke because I complained about how my family never had family reunions and I see them on Facebook all the time. Everyone looks so happy in their matching tee shirts.

The other thing I do on my birthday is thank God for me. Sounds a bit conceited?

Well you should try it if you never have. How often we thank God for other people he has put in our lives. Our spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, and friends. But when is the last time you thanked God for putting life in you, bringing you into the world? For gifting you with the amazing gifts you have? For being the blessing you are to so many?  You are worth celebrating. Shout it from the rooftops!

So much of the time we dwell on our shortcomings. We see so well where we fail but not where we don’t. We need to give ourselves a pat on the back and a good dose of “way to go”  at least once a year, but really we should do it more often. I know it’s hard to toot your own horn. It goes against all we were taught about being humble and not bragging. But not when it’s between you and God. When we thank God for our good we are showing gratitude to Him because we know all goodness comes from Him. When we celebrate ourselves, we celebrate His handiwork.

You are awesome and worth celebrating. So try it. On your next birthday (or hopefully before) thank God for the gift that is YOU!

Headed for the roof,
Joan