I am 75 years old today! I am pretty sure that puts me in the “old man” category! I slept in today until 9:00 a.m. as a birthday present to myself. I took a sleeping pill last night so I would have a nice, sound sleep, and I did!! I have spent most of the morning reading and responding to “Happy Birthday” texts, emails, messages, and Facebook notes; I feel very loved!

Patty and I are going out to an early dinner and then to the “Seniors Baby Boomer Concert” at JBC’s gym tonight at 7:00 p.m. We have a super seniors ministry at JBC, and they are doing this as an outreach event for seniors. In the in-between time, I will work on my “Angels and Demons” class material for Sunday and my leadership class lesson.

I have several “birthday traditions,” one is that I officially start my new goals for the year. I finished writing them several weeks ago. Now, I start reading them every day and writing strategies, timelines, and sub-goals for the big ones, such as my bicycle trip this summer.

Another one is that I write out a relatively long prayer in my journal thanking the Lord for all his blessings to me this last year. I will sit down and write half a dozen different times during the day as I remember all of God’s blessings throughout the day. I have read the ones I wrote over the last few years to stimulate my thinking and memory. The combination of reading previous ones and writing a new one makes me feel incredibly blessed by the Lord. I am all ready for this next year of my life, whatever it may bring.

Right at the top of my blessings list is my family, close and extended; wow, that takes a lot of writing. Also, our church family and ministries that God has let me be involved in which is fantastic. I have so many good and old friends who have meant so much to me over the years. It is impossible to measure or even understand the value and worth of good friends, many of whom have been good friends for many years, my old friends! I have been reminded of many of them as I read my birthday notes. It is too bad that lack of time keeps me from having more contact with many of them over the years, but when we all get to heaven, we will have lots of time to get caught up.

October 27th is a good day for me; thank You, Lord, for creating me and loving me as a unique, one-of-a-kind, self-aware individual who will never stop thinking, remembering, feeling, loving, and being loved forever and ever.