Category: hugs & 3 blessings

What is a period of 50 years or grouping of 50?

Well, let me tell you…

“A Half-Century!”

Which means I have had a Half-Century of blessings to be thankful for!

Does this mean it has been 50 years of perfect-living?

Of day after day of over-flowing joy?

Of no tears nor pain?

Of only sunshine beams streaming and eating zero-calorie ice cream for my dinner?

Let me tell you…

“NO!”

But I have learned, while skipping along the way,

(even if it were to have been *admittedly*  s-l-o-w-l-y)

that the “perfection” of my life has occurred in the

Sweet Surrender of accepting God’s will.

Let me tell you…

God knows what He is doing!

God has a bigger plan for me than I have ever had for myself

and His plan far exceeds the circumstances of any one given day!

And, let me tell you…

I can hardly wait to discover what this next

half-century

will contain!

There is so much more I would like to sing-song-say,

but if I could only tell you 50 things

I’ve discovered during this first half-century

Let me tell you…

1. Let go! Let God!
2. Peace on the outside comes from knowing God on the inside.
3. Start each day with a grateful heart.
4. The older I get the surer I am that I’m not running the show!
5. Life is not meant to be perfect…it’s meant to be LIVED with all its imperfections.
6. We aren’t called to shine our own light; we are called to reflect His.
7. Find joy in the ordinary.
8. Pray hardest when it is hardest to pray.
9. Not my circus.  Not my monkeys.
10. Let it be.
11. Don’t worry about others opinions of you.  God never told you to impress people; only to love them.
12. Character is how you treat those who can do nothing for you.
13. Learn to say “no” without explaining yourself.
14. Sometimes not saying anything is the best answer. (Silence can never be misquoted.)
15. We aren’t called to be like others, we are called to be like Christ.
16. To forgive takes love, to forget takes humility.
17. Heaven is not a prize for the perfect, but the future home for all who are willing to be perfected.
18. Sometimes you’ve just gotta accept that some people can only be in your heart, not in your life.
19. Let all that you do be done with love.
20. God refuses nothing.
21. Until God opens the next door, pray in the hallway.
22. Faith means that you have peace, even when you don’t have all the answers.
23. Having a soft heart in a cruel world is courage, not weakness.
24. A certain darkness is needed to see the stars.
25. Say you’re sorry, ask for forgiveness, and mean it. Truly.
26. Be prepared when you pray to God to defend you against your enemies, you may lose a few friends.
27. Each day is a decision!
28.  You can’t but God can!
29. Take care of your body as if you were going to live forever; and take care of your soul as if you were going to die tomorrow.
30. You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.
31. Everything is going to be alright.  Maybe not today but eventually.
32. On a bad day…there’s always crochet!
33. If it doesn’t make you feel fabulous; don’t do it, don’t buy it, don’t keep it.
34. No one heals themselves by wounding another.
35. NO ONE will ever love you more than Jesus.
36. Hope is the only thing stronger than fear.
37. Life becomes easier when you learn to accept the apology you never got.
38. Someday it’s going to make sense!
39. For what it’s worth:  it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be!  I hope you live a life you’re proud of , and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.
40. Do the next thing.
41. Be confident because you are a child of God.  Be humble because everyone else is too.
42. The unhappiest people in this world, are those who care the most about what other people think.
43. God often uses small matches to light up great torches.  No matter how small you feel in this world, He has something big in store for you.
44. Surround yourself with the dreamers and the doers, the believers and the thinkers, but most of all, surround yourself with those who see the greatness within you, even when you don’t see it yourself.
45. A few nice words can help a person more than you think.
46. It’s okay to say no to unnecessary crazy.
47. Sometimes it’s better to react with no reaction.
48. Never get tired of doing little things for others.  Sometimes those little things occupy the biggest part of their hearts.
49. We don’t stop playing because we grow old.  We grow old because we stop playing! AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST…..
50. It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.

I pray my humble-attempts at living out

this half-century 

has been pleasing to Him…

but even perfect people (of which I am not) make mistakes

(that’s #51 I’d like to tell you!)

Where I have failed I pray, with God’s help,

to do better this next half-century

so that I may celebrate

2 Solid-Gold 50’s someday!

(I wonder if Smucker’s could add some polka-dots?)

hugs n’ blessings to all those who will tell me new life-lessons, along the way!

Will you be the first to share?

(I hope you will!)