Happy birthday to me!

Yes, it's my last year in my 30s, as an old friend from grade school reminded me today on Facebook. The way I look at it, I have a choice - to dread the looming big 4-0, or to embrace the life that God has given me...today and everyday! I choose the latter. I choose to look at life half-full instead of half-empty. I choose to look at the positives, instead of the "woe-is-me". While I know that I may fail at times (cos who could stay 100% positive, 24/7, a permanent grin on the face, without pulling something?!), I'm saying that this is something I'd like to aspire to. Those of you who know me, know that I'm more on the serious, anal, Type A, probably undiagnosed OCD type. But I want God to work in me, and with Him, all things are possible.

My inspiration came from reading my daily Kyria online devotional. Let me share...

today's verse
from the New Living Translation
"If you search for good, you will find favor;
but if you search for evil, it will find you!"

Proverbs 11:27

encouragement for today
Do you look for the good, particularly in people? If you do, you will find favor. If you focus on the negative all the time—watch out! The negative will find you. Yes, sometimes you have to search for the good; it's not always apparent. But the search is worth the favor you will experience.

The search is worth the favor you will experience. I love that!

So after putting my mind to looking at the positives, the test began, yes, already this morning...

I didn't expect anything glamourous or super special today, since it's the first day of school, and the first day back to reality. I mean, every school year, the first day of school happened to fall on my birthday. (But I must share that Jared did take me out for lunch today! So, that was special!)

For some reason (again, I think this was a test!), after I picked Joshua up from Kindergarten, the floodgates suddenly opened and I had a 5-year-old whine that he didn't want to go to the restaurant that I had chosen for lunch because they didn't serve nuggets; a 2-year-old having a total meltdown because her Princess purse fell on the ground and was screaming for me to retrieve it (which I couldn't cos I was driving!); and the noise in the van woke the 4-month-old who commenced her ear-piercing cry which just contributed to the cacophany of noise that filled the air! (seriously, if the FBI or CIA needed to interrogate somebody, just leave that person in a room full of whining toddlers. I guarantee that they will break!). So, I took a deep breath, and fumbled for my new Chris Tomlin CD which I got for Christmas, and put it in the CD player. Soon, the world edition of "How Great Is Our God" came on. And it was beautiful. And I'm not kidding, and this may sound hokey, but I felt this peace come over me. Maybe it's the peace that I blogged about in my previous entry. The noise from the kids seemed to fade away...and they eventually did! And I found myself singing and worshipping along.

I've never faced chaos this way before. I usually lose my cool and have had to pull over and stop the van on several occasions to take care of the insanity that resided in my Sienna. But this...this choice of choosing the positive...the choice to just stay calm...I like it. And when I picked Jared up for lunch, I think he was just as surprised at how calm I was.

So, happy birthday to me! It's going to be a good year!