Celebrating the Past

Saturday, my friend Olivia gave me a belated birthday gift. (Olivia is my friend whose wedding I was in last summer...and we still do Beth Moore Bible studies by phone each week, even though we live several hundred miles apart now.)

Here's what the instructions said: "For your birthday this year, I wanted to give you something for the next year of your life; I wanted to give you something that will be an aid in helping to make it the best it can be! Some days are full of smiles, laughs, and joys. And some days are sad, tiring, frustrating, or discouraging. This kit will help you on those days when you just need a little encouragement...a little pick-me-up! There are 52 ways to brighten your day...Whatever card you draw, you have to do it....no cheating!! You also have to come up with a way to compile it all, so when your next birthday rolls around, you can look back over the past year and reflect on some of the joys provided in this kit, what you learned, what you enjoyed, etc..."

Oh. My. Word.

I adore this gift.

And so it was that on Sunday, I did the first one...

Think of three things you like about your past. Thank God for these things.

Wanted to share my three with you...and then challenge you do it too!!

1. I love it that I wasn't planned. If you only knew how many years of prayer and freelance therapy it has taken to get me to that point!! I spent almost the first 25 years of my life hating the fact that I was an accident. Begging God to tell me why He planted me in a family that considered itself complete without me. I still don't know all the answers to that why, but through much prayer, love, and advice from my friends, and the blessing of page 22 in Rick Warren's book The Purpose Driven Life, I've not only made peace with the fact that it's enough that God planned me...I've come to adore the fact that God planned me. I like it better that I wasn't some long-awaited child of my parents. I was a long awaited child of HIS and His alone...and that means everything to me.

2. I love the beauty in the devastation. My sweet people, you've labored long with me over the loss of Isaac and you've listened to tales of other love-lost-heartache in the posts along the way. After Isaac left, the irreparable scars left on my heart seemed to be too much. I wasn't sure how I could ever have a healthy future in the love department. But I gotta tell you...two years on the other side of that, I'm looking back and seeing so much beauty in that journey I had with him - and with my first relationship, too, back in the day. There were many dreams that came true. Many "movie-moments" wrapped up in those months of love. And some people go a whole lifetime without ever knowing what that feels like. So I love the beauty even though it ended in heartbreak.

3. I love my struggles. Now don't get me wrong. I'd dearly love some of them to go away. But what a very sheltered life I would have lived had I not hurt...and fallen...and realized in very bold ways the imperfections I have. Because of those struggles, I'm able to understand other people in ways I couldn't have. In ways I wouldn't have...because I would have been far too judgmental for my own good. The struggles have driven me into the arms of the Lord...have humbled me...and have built character in beautiful ways.

So that's what I'm thankful for. You should ponder it too...you don't have to tell me what they are if you don't want to, but you should at least think about it. It does make a person grateful!!