TREASURED MOMENTS

What?! Drama Queen. Not me?  Just because I clipped a big birthday balloon on the collar of my sweater and paraded around the house, didn’t mean I was looking for attention. Oh no, not me.

Oh, did somebody mention “birthday”? 

Why, thank you. I had a wonderful birthday. Ha!!!

My sister and her hubby drove down from Kansas City to spend a few days, and my sweet family showed up with flowers, balloons, cake and a milky way. My Sis and I played games, walked around White Rock Lake, grabbed coffee at a local bakery and danced to the Beach Boys…anybody remember the swim, the monkey or the bugaloo?? 

Oh yeah, we were cool!! Okay, maybe not. But we thought so. 

I treasure those moments!!

My daughter called me this morning, and we chatted about birthdays she remembered. One year we did outdoor games and played Red Rover in the back yard. Another year we had a girls’ tea complete with boas, broad brimmed hats and strings of colored-beaded necklaces. I don’t remember exactly how we did this, but I believe we handed out scripts and/or characters and made a birthday movie when she turned twelve. I still remember my daughter looking “glamorous” while leaning on our beat-up old car. 

Then there was her 16th, when her younger sister saved her money for months to rent a limo to drive her and her friends to a special restaurant to celebrate. Precious memories. 

As we shared stories, laughing and reminiscing…she said, “thanks mom. You were a great mom.” 

We both know, I was and am far from perfect. But how grateful I am that she remembers the good stuff!! 

I treasure that moment!!! 

We took pictures, and friends and family sent birthday greetings which I read and reread, and I treasure those moments. 

Sometimes I feel my heart can’t contain them all. Where do they all go…those special moments, that I want to live and relive over and over again.

I know, we can’t live in the past which nowadays is longer than the future that lies ahead. 
But I am grateful for every precious moment. Somehow, they become a part of me even though I can’t remember them all, and I know that as long as God continues to give me breath, there will be more treasured moments and more shaping of the soul.

“LORD, you decided when I would live. Not in the days of Rome, the Middle Ages or the pioneers. You did not put me in a castle or make me a queen, nor do I live in a hut in Africa or some igloo in the frozen tundra. But here. This was your plan. You chose my mom and dad and formed me in my mother’s womb. You had me raised in the housing projects of Chicago. You gave me a strong and beautiful mother who was deaf since the age of two…and yet, I have no doubt that all of this is your gift to me. 

So many treasured memories. Some I can remember and many I can’t. And even the bad ones, I would like to forget…YOU, my God and Savior, have redeemed!!!!

Who is a god, like our God?!! There is none.”

As I read through the Psalms, they tell of treasured moments. Times of grief, rejection and heartache…and sweet times of God’s comfort. Times of victory and great rejoicing!! God is in the business of shaping souls and is ever present working out His good and perfect will. 

Birthdays come and go, but my God is forever…and I am His.