Happy Birthday to Me,

Happy Birthday to Me,

Happy Birthday to Me...................................

Happy Birthday to ME!!!!  AND MANY MORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love my birthday. I don't love it for the gifts, or the cake, or..oh wait, I don't get cake on my birthday unless I make it for myself! LOL  No, really, I love my birthday BECAUSE it's a gift.  One of the traditions in my family is that my siblings and my mom all call each other on our birthday. We don't get gifts for each other for Christmas or our birthdays (we are each one of 6), but we call each other, because we know each of us is special, and we want each other to know that. We all wait for the calls as they come in, and when one calls, they want to know which # call they are. My little brother (who thinks he's my big brother only because he's taller than me *g*) is always the first call, as he was this morning. He doesn't want to forget by later in the day, so he calls right away in the morning. I don't often talk to my brothers (I have 4 of them), so it's truly a TREAT and a blessing to get to talk to them on my birthday, all 4 in one day!!! 

I have one sister. She and I are closer than close can be. Today is the celebrated day for Veteran's Day so we have off from school. We're going to watch Christmas Movies  (The Polar Express and Christmas with the Kranks), drink hot chocolate, and eat popcorn, and have homemade chicken noodle soup for lunch (courtesy of my mommy). :-)  It's a girl's day with her grandaughters (my great nieces), my Sarah, my mommy, and my sissy. I can't think of a better way to spend my birthday to be honest!  It's the simple joys of my life that are the biggest blessings of all!

I was thinking about my birthday today. I'm 43 years old! My brother said, you're Richard Petty's # today, and I said, so that means that *I'm KING!*  LOL  So many people get upset as they get older. I don't. Oh yes, there are the pangs of, where  has the time gone, and my goodness I'm really getting older, but I don't look at my birthday as a drudgery or with dread. I am SO HAPPY that the Lord has given me yet another birthday to celebrate my life here on earth!!!  But most of all to me, years are just a fleeting measure of time.  GOD'S time is infinite, and my measly years in number here in earth are such a short blink of an eye in the grand scheme of His plan.  So I don't want to waste them with a worldly attitude toward my life. My life is a GIFT.  If God hadn't formed me, and made me with love as He did, I wouldn't have the GIFT OF LIFE so that I can be a member and part of HIS glorious Kingdom forever.  Now THAT is a gift that can NEVER be matched!!! THAT is my gift...day after day...year after year, and the only gift that matters to me.  All the others are a blessing, but my  TRUE GIFT is the GIFT of my life.....the TRUE GIFT is GOD Himself!!!  

Isaiah 43:7:
^"And every one that calleth upon my name, I have created him for my glory, I have formed him, and made him."

Psalm 139

O LORD, You have searched me and known me. 
      You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
         You understand my thought from afar. 
      You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
         And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 
      Even before there is a word on my tongue,
         Behold, O LORD, You know it all. 
      You have enclosed me behind and before,
         And laid Your hand upon me. 
      Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
         It is too high, I cannot attain to it. 
      Where can I go from Your Spirit?
         Or where can I flee from Your presence? 
      If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
         If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. 
      If I take the wings of the dawn,
         If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, 
      Even there Your hand will lead me,
         And Your right hand will lay hold of me. 
      If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
         And the light around me will be night," 
      Even the darkness is not dark to You,
         And the night is as bright as the day
         Darkness and light are alike to You. 
      For You formed my inward parts;
         You wove me in my mother's womb. 
      I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
         Wonderful are Your works,
         And my soul knows it very well. 
      My frame was not hidden from You,
         When I was made in secret,
         And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth; 
      Your eyes have seen my unformed substance;
         And in Your book were all written
         The days that were ordained for me,
         When as yet there was not one of them. 
      How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
         How vast is the sum of them! 
      If I should count them, they would outnumber the sand
         When I awake, I am still with You. 
      O that You would slay the wicked, O God;
         Depart from me, therefore, men of bloodshed. 
      For they speak against You wickedly,
         And Your enemies take Your name in vain. 
      Do I not hate those who hate You, O LORD?
         And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? 
      I hate them with the utmost hatred;
         They have become my enemies. 
      Search me, O God, and know my heart;
         Try me and know my anxious thoughts; 
      And see if there be any hurtful way in me,
         And lead me in the everlasting way.