My 45th Birthday Thanksgivings

My 45^th birthday came and went a couple of weeks ago.  I awoke that morning thanking God for my life and all His work in my life and journaled some thanksgivings.  I have wanted to type those up and post them because they are so important to me. 

Thanksgivings are so significant.  They remind us of how much we have, how much we’ve been given, and how blessed we truly are.  Sometimes, when life is hard, we tend to focus on the negatives and become negative ourselves and ungrateful.  Thanksgivings are a powerful force against negativity and ungratefulness.

On my 45^th birthday morning, I offered these initial thanksgivings to God…

Thank You, my God and my Lord, for my being here and able to celebrate my 45^th year of being alive on this earth.

Thank You for my breath and life and all.

Thank You for giving me faith and love and grace and compassion and all the many things that go along with all that.

Thank You for a husband that loves me so much.

Thank You for our long lasting relationship and marriage.

Thank You for all of us having good health and physical ability.

Thank You for the great material provisions we have.  Help us to be better stewards of it.

Thank You for all I learn every day and all the growth.

Thank You that You never leave us nor forsake us.

Thank You for Your comfort and truths.

Thank You for Your immense patience with us.

Thank You for my sweet doggies and for their health and their love and affection. 

Thank You for teaching me so much about Your love for us through my role as a mother.

Thank You for instilling in me the ability to forgive, over and over again, and to not hang on to hatred or resentment or bitterness.

Thank You for holding me so very close to You and speaking to me and being so personal with me.

Thank You for teaching me so much over the last 45 years. 

Thank You that my life did not come to an end in my childhood in that pool when another child’s fear almost drowned me.

Thank You for Your forgiveness over the countless wrongs I’ve done in my life.

Thank You for seeing past my failures into who You are molding me to be.

Thank You for my children and being allowed the privilege to care for them and raise them and know them and have them teach me so much.

Thank You for the beautiful place in which I live and its wonderful weather.

Thank You for the gifts of music, writing, singing, and how they touch me and help me and allow me a way to express myself, whether in joy or sorrow and how they are like a soothing slave to my soul.

Thank You for me.  I’m not popular by worldly standards or of much importance by worldly standards, but I know that I do matter and hold a very unique and special place in this world.  A place You had and have for me to fill.

Thank You for not getting tired of me.

Thank You for not giving up on me.

Thank You for every moment in my life, for I know all those moments have been part of the molding and shaping that makes me who I am today and lead to who You are making me in the future.

Thank You for the handful of friends who truly love me and care about me.

Thank You for making me a person that does not rely on pretense but believes in being real, honest, and true.

Thank You that You never ever forget me.

Thank You that You are never too busy for me.

Thank You that You are always willing to hear me out, even if I’m crying, angry, or whiny. 

Thank You for believing in me and in who I’m becoming in Your hands.

Thank You for binding Michael and I and giving us a good, long lasting marriage in spite of all our failures and mistakes.

Thank You for these literal Bible translations that lay here before me on my desk and the treasure of Your story and words in them.

Thank You for family.  I have not always appreciated them or their impact in my life. 

Thank You for growing me and stretching me so much during the hard times.

Thank You that with You and in Your hands nothing, no event, is wasted or meaningless.  It’s all valuable and part of the future still ahead.

Thank You for healing.

Thank You for taking my broken heart (many times in life) and tenderly and lovingly putting it back together again and full of more love and grace than ever before. 

Thank You for teaching me the value of life.

Thank You for humbling me and not letting me be prideful or continue in pride when I have it.

Thank You for teaching me and instilling in me the value of relationships and people.

Thank You for giving me a love for people and a desire to help them, not hurt them.

Thank You for beautiful bright sunshine today for this birthday.

Thank You for keeping hope in my heart during the tough times.

Thank You for placing trust for You in my heart.

I love You, my Father God, YHWH. 

I love You, my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. 

THANK YOU!!

Thank You, my hope and my all is found in You.  I’m Your child, Your girl, forever.

As the day went on, I thought of more thanksgivings, and I was given more things to be thankful for.

Thank You, God, for all the people who have touched my life and contributed to my growth, maturity, and the person I am today.  Some have touched me in hurtful ways, but the hurt has made me a much more compassionate and graceful person to others.  Some have loved me so deeply, and that love has taught me to love the same.  Some have misunderstood me and questioned my motives, but that has taught me to be willing to take the time to understand others and hear them out.  Some have believed in me, and that has taught me to believe in myself and in others.  No matter for the type of touch every person has imparted, it has all been something You used in molding me into who I am today and will be in the future.  I am thankful.

Thank You for the trials, for without them I wouldn’t have learned and grown as much.

Thank you for Michael working so hard to build new garden beds for me so I can plant and grow healthy things for our family to eat and also to share with others.

Thank You for the joy of spending a super fun afternoon and evening of activities and laughter with two of my children and their boyfriend and girlfriend whom I also love as if they were my own children.

Thank you for the delicious flan Michael bought for me and I enjoyed for dessert.

Thank You for that flan leading to my daughter’s long hug at the end of the evening.  That was certainly the “sweet cherry on top” to my entire day.

I have so much to be thankful for.  Beginning my birthday full of thanksgivings put me in the frame of mind to have that view for the rest of my day and week.  I kept thinking of more things for which I was thankful.  God brought me so much joy, smiles, and laughter for three days straight.  Wow!  What a great reprieve from the ongoing trials.  I was immensely thankful!!  Even now, as I think about my birthday joys and the next two days of more happiness to complement it, I smile.  And again, I am thankful.

As hard as it is to admit it or write it, I also thank God for the days of sorrow.  For without sorrow, I couldn’t possibly know or appreciate the days of joy.  We cannot know one without the other.  Those three days of pure joy meant more to me than any of my words can fully express. They were such a pleasant insertion within days of sorrow and difficulty.

Blessed and grateful that Father God and the Lord Jesus Christ are truly our Hope for today and for the future.  

I feel like I should end this post in some way, like with an “Amen”. 

No, not “Amen”.  That’s not right.

I’ll end this with some of my daughter’s words when she was a little girl and she would write me notes with scriptural truth or speaking of her love or random thoughts and end them by saying,

“It’s true!”  :-)

I thought this fun and uplifting song was very appropriate for this post of thankfulness.