Getting Better Every Day...

March is a special month for me.

On March 25, 1973 I was baptized. So, this year it will be 32 years ago. Wow...hard to believe.

I'm thinking about how we reminisce about the first moment we decided to give our heart to God. Some think fondly about it and often wish they could go back to feel that fresh excitement again.

We often wish we could go back physically in time...when we're older we look at our teens and 20's and remember how good we had it...how good we looked and wish our bodies were the same, or we had more hair, or sharper minds, or maybe just less responsibility and burdens.

For me, I'm so happy to be where I am. I've always thought I was a little weird for this. I have been in the church all my life, and my experience has been people wish they could go back. How many times have we heard "think back to the first time you took communion", or "remember the moment you came out of the water". Truthfully, I was just a baby. I didn't know anything, except that I loved Jesus Christ very much and I wanted to serve Him all of my days. So, when I think back, all I see is an empty headed little girl who was just starting out on this walk...I was, after all, only 10.

I'll even go so far as to say, I am more comfortable with my physical self today than I was in my teens and 20's. That's not to say there aren't things that have changed because of age...or things I wouldn't like to change if I had a magic wand (or $50,000 for plastic surgery), but over all, I love me. That's such a relief to be able to say.

This journey we're on can do one of two things for us. It will either destroy us, or make us better. I can ignore the commandments of God (Love God ~ Love each other), and live a selfish life that will only make me an empty shell of a woman, or I can follow His heart and search His will. That, my friend, makes us beautiful. Beauty that shines from the inside to the outside.

I'm confident that if God allows me to live to be 80 years old, I will love who I am and maybe even be a cute old woman.

Spiritually, God has led me and loved me and disciplined me. He's come after me when I left Him and He has hung out quietly on the side lines when I had to make tough decisions regarding Him. But He's never left me.

I remember the day I decided to be baptized...it was March 10. It took me a while to get up the courage to tell someone because it was so important I couldn't say it without crying. I remember practicing in my room to tell my Daddy that I wanted to be baptized and every time, I cried. I finally gave up practicing and the week of March 25 I told him of my wishes. And yes, I cried when I told him. I also cried all during the service that morning, cried as my Dad stepped out in the aisle to let me go forward, cried when they took my confession, cried when I went under, and was still crying when I came up. Cried as I got dressed and cried as I came out where a large group of people were waiting to hug me...and yes, I'm crying right now.

I love those memories, but truthfully, I really love who I am today in Jesus. I've learned so much...the relationship is so much deeper and richer.

If you've been dwelling on the past, whether physically or spiritually, let me encourage you to look forward. It's not about what you become physically or
financially. It's what you become inside because of the journey.

Enjoy it...Embrace it...