birthday thankfulness

today was my birthday.  i turned 27.  although [inadvertently] i have been telling people for about 6 months now that i am 27.  when you get this old [haha] the years start to blur a bit and i forgot what my true age was.  maybe its because i am one of the youngest moms i know, so my brain was telling me that i needed to be older.

though the enemy was trying to get me down a bit this morning, this turned out to be one of my favorite birthdays for the past several years.  august is usually a busy time for me/us, so its easy for me to brush by my birthday without much celebration [which is fine.  but sometimes its fun to do something special].  but today was nice.


alex and i went on a long bike ride to/along the beach, played crossword scrabble, stopped at starbucks to say hi to a friend who works there and ended up getting a free birthday frappuccino, got some free yogurtland fro yo, went swimming at a friend's pool (esther's 3rd time swimming this week, and last saturday was her first time ever.  she loves it!) and read a new book i got from the library about home schooling for a couple hours.

our little joyful girl, on a swing for the first time ever this weekend

but even better than doing fun things today, God really reminded me about His mercy in my life.  i have a loving, God-fearing husband.  i have a smily, joyful daughter.  we have a safe home.  we have 3 delicious meals each day.  God is a shield about me (psalm 3).  through the abundance of His steadfast love, i will not be cut off, but i will enter his house (psalm 5).  i have lived to see 27 years (i would guess that most people in the history of the world have not lived to this age, especially if you factor in miscarried babies).  i have an amazing church. i laid down last night and woke again this morning, for the Lord sustained me (psalm 3).  He has showed me that there is a God (psalm 10) and i worship that God, and have true life through him.

and i haven't even checked my 2834 birthday wishes on facebook, reminders of the many friends God has blessed me with (and also those people i haven't talked to since high school who are also wishing me a happy bday :P ).


"you have put more joy into my heart than they have when their wine and grain abound" psalm 4:7