Birthday Thoughts

Well, today is January 2, and it's my birthday...my 63rd birthday! 

Seems impossible.  I remember my life 61 years ago...clear memories of a

child living in Oak Ridge, just having celebrated birthday #2, the day we moved

from Alabama for Daddy's new job.  We lived in an apartment complex where each apartment

had a different color panel on the building.  My brother had gotten a Hopalong Cassidy

bicycle, with training wheels and a rifle attached, for Christmas; he rode by and hollered,

"THERE'S A SNAKE ON OUR PORCH!"

My Aunt Laura, who was visiting with us and whose hand I was holding, said,

"Harry, don't tease us!  That's not nice!"

Well, guess what?  There WAS a snake on our porch, all coiled up and watching us intently.

After many shrieks and screams, someone got rid of him, thank goodness!  I detest snakes to this day.

I don't know why I am thinking of this today, except that it is one of my farthest-back memories.

It must have been a traumatic one, for it is indelibly written on my mind.  I also remember being in a

train wreck when I was a toddler, and that obviously was traumatic, as well!

I remember lots of birthdays along the way:  one when I got a bicycle that I was "expecting" at

Christmastime...and my garnet birthstone ring...

one when I got to have a slumber party...one when I was VERY pregnant

and hoping our baby would come a little early as my present :)  And many where my

sweet husband brought me red roses and funny cards with animals, as is our tradition.

I'm always happy and blessed on my birthday...and grateful just to be here and healthy.

Because it occurs so close to Christmas...and right at the new year's dawn...it's a

wonderful time to start again...to be renewed...to hope and to plan and to resolve to

walk a little closer to Him, to be better, to have positive thoughts and words,

to be still and to know that He is God..(QUIET might just be my word for 2012)

...to serve, to love, to help, to be all that I can be. 

 It's also a great time to share the Good News, to serve Him better,

to be a friend who is always trusted

and to be the best wife and mother and grandmother

I can be.

I'm thankful to my parents for making life possible for me, and to God for blessing me with

wonderful family and friends...and for loving me enough to give His Son for me and for all mankind,

so that we might have life, abundant and everlasting, both here on earth and then in heaven.

Yes, it's my birthday, and I'm feeling very blessed!