Riding bikes and summer reading at the library...these are the two most vivid memories of my childhood summers. I did both with my kids today. I can't quite explain how much doing that with my kids today brought me back to being a kid myself. I love summer and I'm glad it's here!
The number scares me a little. I knew today was coming but now that I have "officially" left my 30's... wow. I spent sometime on my sabbatical in January wrapping my mind around this birthday. Honestly, I have seen too many friends and acquaintances not handle this one very well and I didn't want to presume I was immune to it.
It's weird to think I have entered another decade...so much happened in my thirties. I became a mom twice, our family moved to two different cities, we helped plant two churches...I'm tired just thinking about it. I look forward to enjoying the "fruits" of my 30's in my 40's. Not that I expect life to slow down with a nine year old and a six year old, but there has been a lot of "planting" the last few years. I look forward to the blossoms.
The one emotion that keeps coming to the surface today is gratefulness. Through all the highs and lows of my life, I am overwhelmed when I really think about all that God has done in my life and blessed me with through the years. Two great parents, sisters, extended family...we actually enjoy spending time together still! My husband, my children, my ministry, my home and yes... I live at the beach. The amazing friendships that I have through the years and the wonderful memories that I have. God has provided for me every step of the way in so many ways...I'm spoiled and I know it.
I have a few things still on my "list." Since Todd and I celebrated our 18th anniversary this week, we talked about our 20, 25 and 30th aniversary trips. That got me excited. I have a passion to continue to create opportunities for artists to be "reconciled" back to the church and God. I have some tangible ways I want to see that happen on the Island. My songwriting is something I want to look back at my 40's and say that I really went for it. I've written more this year than in the last 10 years and I just want to keep at it. I want to see my kids continue to pursue lives that make a difference. Make choices that count. I want to take them on their first mission trip outside of this country in the next few years. I want to live it more than I tell them "how" to live it.
I want my marriage to not be something I take for granted. I want Todd and I to fall more in love each and everyday and extend grace to each other more than we ever have in the last 20 years.
I want to play more and work less. Trust God more and stop trying to figure it out. Let circumstances unfold and see what God is teaching me that day. I really feel that I'm starting to find such beauty in the quiet, simple, marginal life that I have really tried to live since January. The "not so fun" things I need to do... eat less sugar, walk three times a week without excuses, use my eye cream twice a day without fail...yeah. That's enough.
So, I'm going eat cupcakes (thanks, Donna!) and enjoy my family today. Take a nice long walk with my huband. Enjoy dinner tonight with the family at my favorite restaurant. And be grateful.
"Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out; you formed me in my mother’s womb. I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before you, The days of my life all prepared before I’d even lived one day." - Psalm 139:13-16 (MSG)