Today is my birthday. 51 times this day has rolled around making me long for a fresh box of crayons, glue sticks, and a bouquet of sharpened number 2 pencils. It goes with the territory when one’s birthday coincides with school starting and the back-to-school aisle draws me like bubblegum to shoes. Saying good-bye to summer and hello to fall never felt so good over flaming candles and the thick sweet taste of chocolate icing. And over the years I’ve learned a few things…51 bits of wisdom at 51 .
1. A clean pair of underwear is of no benefit in an accident.
2. Most love songs are wrong, broken hearts do mend.
3. Anyone who says, “trust me,” is not trustworthy.
4. It’s not about who you know or what you do, but how you live.
5. I’d rather be with God in the darkness than without Him in the light.
6. If you have to tell someone you’re great, you’re obviously not that great.
7. Stop blaming your parents. They may have started you out weird, but you continued.
8. Credentials do not make you a good person. And neither does having money.
9. Although two people can look at the same thing, they will see it differently.
10. Sometimes a person you least expect to help you – will.
11. Wrinkle creams don’t work and neither do diet pills
12. God has a Plan B when our Plan A doesn’t work out the way we thought it would.
13. Putting your toe down while roller skating is a bad idea.
14. Hanging up on someone is a sign you admit you’ve lost.
15. Gratitude changes your attitude.
16. Birds chirp every morning for a reason.
17. Barry Manilow and Air Supply melodies still make me cry.
18. No one ever became captain of a ship by navigating smooth waters.
19. Forgiving someone who’s hurt you is something you have to revisit daily.
20. The height of cruelty is not necessarily the action itself but occurs when those who know it’s wrong stand, watch and accept.
21. Sometimes there are no words. Sometimes you just need to listen.
22. Honesty and love go hand in hand – you can’t have one without the other or you are deceiving yourself and the one you profess to love.
23. Beer cannot solve your problems, neither can milk, but no one ever went to jail for drinking too much milk.
24. There really are angels here among us on earth.
25. Sometimes the anxiety of problems is crippling. Three things to do: a) Remind yourself of the ways God helped you in the past. b) Thank Him for His faithfulness to you. c) Believe He will handle every detail of your current situation.
26. Santa Claus visits those who believe.
27. Life is good!
28. Stop searching for your purpose in life and become the purpose in someone else’s life. Then you won’t have to ask God what your purpose is here, you’ll know.
29. You are stronger than you know.
30. Be sensitive to those around you. You never know what someone is going through. You can be a source of encouragement or the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
31. Chili powder is really good when substituted accidentally for cinnamon in pumpkin pie.
32. Life is not about what we want but what God wants for us.
33. Success is a human term. God’s measuring stick is quite different. What we deem a failure, God can use to change the world.
34. Enjoy your children while they are within arm’s reach.
35. A new day is a new chance to get it right.
36. At the end of the day, it’s really about looking in the mirror and saying with full confidence, “I represented God today. I know He’s proud of me.”
37. God does not need us. He wants us.
38. Anxiety is the result of forgetting where our security really is.
39. Birds only know they have wings when tested. Otherwise they’d just sit in a tree.
40. The reality of our lives is the things we tend to place as a priority in day-to-day living really aren’t. And the things we push to the side are usually the most important.
41. Trust comes not with words but with actions.
42. When God closes a door He always opens another; however, waiting in the hallway for that door to open can be hell.
43. Sometimes the things we fight so hard to hold on to were never really ours to begin with.
44. Stay away from people who make you feel you’re hard to love. There are enough people who adore you just as you are!
45. It would be nice if life were like a Hallmark movie…but it’s not.
46. Realize the power of prayer.
47. The people I call family are not necessarily biologically connected to me.
48. “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” is really a good mantra.
49. We don’t have to be happy to smile; we become happy because we do smile
50. Death takes us to the place we are living to be.
