So I turned twenty-seven yesterday.
Unbelievable! Exciting! Unbelievable!
I’m still young enough that I love birthdays, and honestly, I hope I always love them. Perhaps it easy to say it on this side of thirty or forty years old…but age is just a number, and every year is another accomplishment. Every new and older age is full of new possibilities and good things to come! So far I feel like life truly does get better as I get older, so the next fifty years look great to me. Ben and I often talk and laugh about what it will be like to be sixty or seventy or eighty years old…with grand babies and false teeth and wrinkles and experiences and hopefully a ton more wisdom than we have now…we just think it sounds like a grand time of life!
Ben took me out for a birthday date on Tuesday night to my favorite crepe restaurant, and spoiled me with presents and cards! He’s such a romantic! We were talking about the past year during our evening, and he asked me what I felt was the best thing about the past year and what I’ve felt that I’ve learned. I thought about it for a second and realized that I think one of the best things that I’ve learned/am learning is to accept myself as I am and to fully lean into my identity in Christ. One of my biggest weaknesses is to allow external factors and accomplishments to determine my worth and make me feel confident. But in this twenty-sixth year, I feel the Lord changing something in me and taking me deeper in my true identity as a woman hidden in Him. And I believe that next year at this same time I will be able to see how He’s done that even more!
I’ve been so inspired by a few of my friends (her and her) who have made these super neat lists of goals to accomplish before their next birthdays, with the number of goals correlating to her current age (20 before 21, etc.). I think it’s such a splendid idea, but in all reality I don’t know if I could quite conjure up twenty seven goals for the next year! I guess that’s one problem with getting older, hehe.
But I did come up with a few goals for the next 365 days of my life::
– have a baby (haha!)
– make fresh pasta
– send a handwritten card to two people each month
– learn to knit
– try a new cuisine
– learn to make bread
– volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter
– read a Proverbs every day
– take a culinary class
– make homemade root beer
– walk/run a 5k with Ben + baby
It’s a pretty simple and short list, but this is a big year for us with a lot of changes so I figure I better not overwhelm myself too much! We’ll see how much of this list gets accomplished…
What about you: do you set goals for your year? Do you like having a birthday?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
Making pasta from scratch has been on my 'I'm going to do it someday' list ever since I sat in on a cooking class and watched a chef prepare a fabulous dish, in less than thirty minutes. He made it look so easy!
I love this list of goals! Isn't in fun to know that within the next week or so (hopefully day or so) you'll be able to cross that first one off. 😉
The pros make pasta making look so easy, but I have this sneaking feeling it's harder than they make it appear. 😉
I can't wait to cross that first goal off the list!! Hopefully SOON.
Love this, Alicia. That identity thing has been a huge battle for me these last few months as well. I once heard someone say that a girl becomes a women when her identity is no longer found in what her friends say, whether she has a guy, etc. but rather found in the One who created her, and I thought that was so beautiful.
Cheers to baby coming SOON!
-veronica
happy belated birthday! and your thoughts deep! that's a great list – hoping your baby comes soon! Although I have really loved your attitude and thoughts on your pregnancy posts…. I love having a birthday and I love celebrating others birthdays with them. It's a special day to celebrate the gift of life that God has created.