TOP's Tuesday: Birthday Blessings

Thank you for the Birthday blessings today!

"The Lord your God is with you,
    the Mighty Warrior who saves.
He will take great delight in you;
    in his love he will 
no longer rebuke you,
    but will rejoice over 
you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 NIV

A twist on our weekly TOP's Tuesday blog this week, it's my birthday. This is one of those days when I miss my sister, Heidi Allen, a little bit more than normal.

Birthdays are a big deal in our family. Growing up as a child, each Sunday we gathered at my Gram's house for supper. Any birthdays during the week, were celebrated again on Sunday. So typically, we had two birthday parties. The first with our friends and a second with our family.

Today, after waking up to the sound of rain and a gentle breeze moving the leaves I received my first phone call of the day, from my parents to say, "Happy Birthday". After the coffee was brewing, dogs were out, and some quiet time spent...I checked Facebook. Oh my...overwhelmed by love.

I continue to read the different birthday expressions of love, friendship, encouragement, and celebration and at one point today, found myself crying. Why tears when so many are sharing such beautiful messages? Simple, I was overwhelmed by the birthday blessings that abound on my Facebook page. I'm undeserving of such encouragement and love, but aren't we all. Undeserving I mean. 

Don't get me wrong, we all need a little appreciation, love, and encouragement in our lives. A little extra on our birthday, it is the day God chose to gift us to our parents after all. BUT...we don't deserve God's grace and mercy, He simply enjoys encouraging, uplifting, and blessing us. And one way He does this is through people like you on our birthday. 

Some don't like social media because of the evils that lie within but there are evils in most things we do in life, just as there are many positives and blessings. Rather than focus on the negatives, let's celebrate the blessings. While I miss my sister, the funny birthday card she always gave (we had a competition of who could give the funniest card to the other each year), and the special sister time we spent...I'm thankful for all of you.

You've made my day so special, it's only 10:30 a.m. and I've received 167 FB birthday messages on my home page, not counting the private messages or texts received. This touches my heart so much that this many people took time to send a birthday message to me. Thank you ~ God's using your messages to encourage and help me to not miss Heidi so much today. As if this isn't enough, my parents called and are treating me to lunch! Yum!

A friend "gifted" me Zephaniah 3:17 one year for my birthday, 
do you have a birthday verse to share?

THANK YOU FOR MAKING MY BIRTHDAY SO SPECIAL!!