My Birthday!

Wednesday was my birthday. Turning 41 was easy compared to turning 40 last December. I anticipated and struggled with my 40th for 6 months before my birthday last year. This year, it barely registered that I am a year older. I'm not afraid of getting older, I'm afraid of having regrets. I don't want to spend my time and energy on things that won't really matter in the end. I think my blog has helped me put things in perspective. I like the fact that in my "labels" listed alongside the posts there are 94 posts under the category of "friends". I hadn't thought about it during the year, but looking back, I had more posts about friends than any other category. I love my friends!! :) This is me at age 4 in 1970:

My sister took me to a little diner for breakfast to celebrate. She also gave me a birthday gift: 4 tickets for our family to ride the Christmas Train from Horseshoe Bend to Banks on the 16th!!! The rest of the day unfolded like most Wednesdays do. Schoolwork, housework, quizzing and Kid's Club. I received lots of birthday wishes and felt very blessed by the special friendships in my life. In Kid's Club we made Christmas tags for the Women's Missionary Fellowship auction. The kids are thrilled to help raise money for missions. I think these will bring in a chunk of change:

Even though my heart was heavy from the junk that happened on Tuesday, I had a sense of peace in the knowledge that my identity is not in what I do but in Whose I am. I got to practice praying for someone that I really didn't want to pray for. I was kicking and screaming just a little bit in my mind about it, but I was finally able to pray for the person who "persecuted" us and felt much better when I just let it go.