Thoughts on a Birthday

Reflections upon a milestone birthday

EveryDay life began in 2006 as a means of sharing our faith with our grandchildren. Last year on my birthday, I wrote the comments I share below for our children and their children, and hopefully for the sake of the family’s generation(s) that will follow after my journey is complete. To celebrate this milestone birthday as well as our 49th anniversary the first of August, Gayle and I are taking some leisure time together and I will not be writing EveryDay Life the remainder of this month. I thought this would be a good time to share with you the words I first wrote to our family, since you have become a fellow traveler on our journey and an extension of our spiritual family of faith. My comments to our family upon my birthday last year are really at the heart of why I write this daily devotional each day. I am privileged to share EveryDay Life Ministries with a widening circle of readers, and it is now translated into Bulgarian and touching lives in more than a dozen countries from which readers have made contact with us.

Today is my birthday – 70 years! I prefer to think of this day as the successful achievement of six decades of God’s favor and grace, accompanied by so many people’s gracious kindnesses. I can hardly believe that number of years. That is a long time to live, but not nearly enough yet. The customary greeting on such a day is “Happy Birthday,” and as I read greetings in cards, emails, and Facebook this morning, I reflected on what makes me truly happy. Happiness for its self can be strangely elusive. Happiness is much less than Gayle and I have sought; from God,we have expected and experienced something better – His joy and true satisfaction. I have concluded that among all that we enjoy, central to our joy and satisfaction are three things: our faith, our family, and our friends. My “birthday wish” would be that those we love and serve would share those three values sincerely.

Our faith has been central to all else, the source and  support for daily life through good and not so good times and things, making us more than we would have been without it, providing our family with a network of others who share and depend upon that faith, keeping us on track when we could have gone astray, and opening doors of opportunity for us that I would not have wanted to miss. Most of all, faith makes me know that our hearts and future are safely in God’s hands. All is well, and will be well forever. Our greatest joy is seeing that our “children walk in the truth.” Remember, faith cannot be inherited; it is a personal and individual decision that you alone can make, and you must. The earlier in life you decide that, the simpler it is to do so. It is primary, not secondary to all other decisions you will make, and is best reaffirmed every day. Don’t waste a day of life without a clear and personal faith. Do not live a single day facing eternity without that assurance of soul.

Marriage and family have brought us a greater joy than I could ever have foreseen in my youth. Had I been wiser sooner I would have invested more of myself much earlier. Family is the greatest investment I have ever made – producing far richer and more satisfying dividends than property and possessions ever could. I wish for you the joy and pleasure multiplied in your lives that we have received from you. Prize the time and times you have together. The years are too brief and pass too quickly to take them for granted because of busyness or lesser pursuits. You are the one who can make every day a joy-filled day. Our family has enjoyed privileges and blessings to the degree that faith has been central to who we are and how we choose to live our lives together.

The right friends are the greatest of God’s gifts to your life. Choose them well and wisely. Friends who share your faith and values will best shape who you become in many ways that you may not realize until later. The older I have become, the more appreciative I am of the unmistakable influence of the people God has placed in and around my life. Gayle and I are blessed. Like family, friends become invaluable with each year, through the common experiences and memories you will share. By their acceptance and example, friends have helped me become a man, husband, father, friend, and pastor far better than I would have been without them. I would counsel you to be purposeful about friendships and, most importantly, become the kind of friend that you would want others to be in your life. When you are young you have many acquaintances and associations; the years sort those and reveal the friendships that make your latter years full and satisfying, as ours have been. Lots of people around you cannot make your life full; but even a few of the right kind of friends who challenge and inspire you will make life richer than you dream.

These are the eternal, therefore important, things – faith, family, and friends – that are important to my life on this birthday, and that I pray you will prioritize and value in your life. You know, now that I think about it, this really is a happy birthday.

With love and prayers . .