How old are you?

Today I would like to say... well.... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

I have an '0' at the end of my age again and that is a big thing. Leaping into the next decade feels like more of a big deal than just hopping along the years within a decade.

Yesterday at "The Craft Group" I did our regular "Thought for the day" spot. 

If you are interested in my thoughts and are curious to find out how old I am, you can click below on "read more".

I will tell you more about my celebrations and the BEAUTIFUL thoughts and gifts I received in future posts. Fun!

Oh, and I might also point out that the photo above is of the beautiful flowers I had in little glass jars on the tables of my party (bought from the flower markets by my lovely niece Sam and her Mum, my sis, Sharon... thanks for getting up at 4 in the morning for me! And the Royal Albert vase is from my sis & bro-in-law Helen and John. Thanks for coming all the way from the sunny north to wish me happy b'day and help out!)

OK... now to reveal how old I am... and tell you which town not to drive through!

P.S. Don't tell anyone how old I am. It's a secret.

Everyone here will have been through those birthdays where you step from one decade into another… your 20’s to your 30’s… your 70’s to your 80’s.

Well, I am about to leap from my 40’s to my 50’s.

Will I leap with fear and trepidation, or will I leap in with excited anticipation?

I think it will be a defining age for me. Up until now I have, for the past few decades been a wife and a mum with 4 children to care for. At the moment I have 4 children nearly over 15. There are no steady boyfriends or girlfriends and they are all living at home. Within the next decade, I think there will be more changes in my life than I have had since my 20’s.

It does make me a bit more thoughtful about going to a new decade than I have ever had before. Being in my 50’s puts me in a whole new stereotype. There is an ad at the moment which says something about are you in your 50’s …. "Oh, kids, that’s nearly me!" I said, "listen…this might be a good gift idea..." then they started to talk about menopause and I told them to change the channel. Also, in 5 years time I can move into a Retirement village if I wanted to. Hmmm.

But I have had this overwhelming sense of 2 things a I ponder this half century milestone. One is a strong sense of thankfulness for the people God has placed in my path over the past 50 years. For eg. being involved with ladies here at The Craft Group for 20 of those years has been a real blessing.

The second thing I am really aware of is Eternity.

If the years we live here on earth is all there is, then I would be worried about the fact I am over half way. I would be worried about the money I am or am not making here, worried about getting through a bucket list of things I must do in this life before it is all over.

My daughter Heidi and I were driving through Liverpool the other week and we were not in a hurry, so I said, let’s drive into Sandy Point. I’ve never been there. There is one road in and one road out. So we drove along the main road. Sometimes it is nice to just do that.

Another little town in NSW is Woronora Heights. It also has only one way in and one way out. In this town, you drive through, and if you keep driving… it will loop around at the end of the road and eventually you will come out in the same way as you entered.

But Sandi point…. If you keep going along blindly… you will end up in the Georges River! Literally!

Life is like that. We need to think about how we came into this life, and how we will exit it. I can tell you from the Bible that you are not here by accident. God placed you here…

Psalm 139:13-14 says

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
 your works are wonderful, I know that full well."

At the other end of life, the Bib;e also tells us what will happen and the great thing for people who believe and trust in Jesus is that we will be close to Him. Nothing can separate us from His Love. There is always this special bookmark in my husband's Bible. In 2004, his brother, Fred, passed away just a few months after he turned 50. On the bookmark it quotes Romans 8:38-39. 

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future,nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So I can definitely say that the road is not going to suddenly come to a grinding holt for me when I die. It also is not going to happen according to whatever I think might happen. Based on what God has shown in the Bible, I can confidently look forward to the road ahead with Jesus as my guide through the future with Him.