Birthdays.....

How do you celebrate birthdays if you even do celebrate them? We do, I believe we should show thankfulness continually for those in our life, but celebrating the day the Lord brought them to us, into the world, into our family is special - and the day of their second birth should be special as well. Blessing others should be an everyday privilege, some of us have to work at that, others it comes naturally, but it is something that we should strive for and it begins in our home, doing it in our family. It is honoring to our Lord.

I was telling my daughter the other evening how it blessed me to watch two of her children be a blessing to her youngest daughter on her birthday, they were giving of their time and attention to her and showing her love, love without any speck of selfishness or not an ounce of begrudging. It blessed me to see children show pure love in a day where normally it is me, me, me. (we all have those days too)

Our birthday "season" begins in January and runs through July - the birthday person is privileged to choose his or her own meal for that evening along with a desert and a day of rest, no chores for that day, and no school. We used to do extravagant presents - but don't do that anymore, if there is a gift that is fine, most of the time everyone draws a home made card or makes a gift for that person.

Some special years in this house are 1986, 1989, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002 - my youngest is nine and it is a great age, is hard to believe he will be in the double digits next year, I am so thankful for each child and grandchild the Lord has given me to love and be an example to - He grows my family in ways I never would have imagined and proves continually just how much love He has given me to share. I look forward to the future to see how He continues to grow our family in His way. Oh, and my children would say not to forget the year 1967 although that seems ancient to a few of them, ;)