But this birthday has caused me to do a lot of reflecting on my life. As a child, 60 years seemed like an eternity...but it has gone so fast and keeps getting faster! What have I done with those 60 years and some of my sadness on reaching this milestone was that I didn't think I had done enough. But God is so merciful and redeems the time.
- I have seen God's hand moving so many times that it gets easier and easier to trust Him and to wait on Him even when it doesn't seem like He is answering or doing anything. I KNOW He is because of our history!
- I have experience that I can share with others, mistakes I made in raising my sons or in my marriage that I can help someone else avoid, but also things that worked well for me and brought blessings that others can also be blessed by
- No more hormone high and lows (or at least not so many). I don't miss those roller coaster rides, really!
- Looking back and seeing so many ways God prepared me to serve Him. I trained and worked as a secretary while single and in the early years of our marriage. God arranged for me to work for a doctor who was gracious and patient. He told me, "The patients are not interruptions to your work, they ARE your work. And they are coming in sometimes upset, angry or anxious. It is your job to be gracious and calm with them." Who would know that many years later, after my job of raising five sons was over, I would use those skills to serve my church family. God did! And in the early years of homeschooling I was very active in a home school support group and was unable to be very active in our church ministry. I sometimes felt guilty about that but knew that was where God had me serving at that time. He knew He was preparing me to start a homeschool umbrella at our church and He did!
- And even things like living in a house where our bedroom was on the first floor. We lived there for 15 years and in that time I managed to break a leg three times! God knew I would need a first floor bedroom during those years. The ten years before and the five years since, we have had a second floor bedroom (and I sincerely hope, Lord, that means there are no more broken bones in my future!)
- Yesterday was my father's 99th birthday. He no longer celebrates birthdays because he is in the presence of the King of kings and is too busy celebrating Him. But he did have 96 birthdays to celebrate and I was so blessed to have him as my daddy that long and to see him model what a true servant of Christ looks like.
- Oh yes, and yesterday I stopped for a quick meal at McDonald's. When I was checking my receipt I noticed that I was only charged 59 cents for my hot tea. I thought that was odd until I saw the word "senior" next to the charge. Yes, there are advantages to being old!
