a day of celebration.

Today is my eighteenth birthday!!!

It’s a crazy thing to think about, to be quite honest.

 I can vote, buy a lottery ticket and join the military...which is a funny mental image.

But as my family and friends celebrate my birthday with me today, I’ve been thinking about the blessings God has showered upon me in the past eighteen years. I was born into an amazing family who cares about me more than I can describe - parents, brothers, grandmas. Always encouraging, supporting and loving, even when it’s hard. I have been given friends who I can depend on, from all around the country, who encourage me in my walk with Christ. And God has always provided for me, far beyond what I would have imagined for myself.

Most importantly, God chose me as His child, one He calls His own.  

I love Paul’s take on this in Galatians 1:15: 

 “. . .God, who set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal His Son.”

Despite my sin, and not because of anything I've done, God chose to send His Son to die for me. Before the creation of the world, and way before my entrance into the world a measly eighteen years ago, God knew me and chose me as His beloved daughter.

I remember as a little kid, my parents talking to me about how much God loved me. They told me that God loves me even more than they do. And to this day I can remember that conversation, sitting on the bathroom counter, with my feet dangling off, being amazed that anyone could love me more than Momma and Daddy.

So as I celebrate my life today, surrounded by God's love through His blessings to me,

what more could I ask for?

God has claimed me as His own! I am His.

happy birthday to me:)

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

Psalm 139:13-14

Mary Catherine