Here I am on the eve of my 28th birthday, usually a day that I love.  Birthday freebies, time with friends, cards in the mail, Facebook greetings, and cake. (Freebies, if you haven’t signed up for freebies…do it!)

What is not to love?

But if I am honest, I am struggling.  My struggles come with the reality that as I have been reflecting on my last 10 years of adulthood, I am frustrated.  I am not where I want to be.

This is where I usually spiral down into a full panic that I am never going to amount, my life is going nowhere, I am a loser…*nobody likes me, everybody hates me, guess I’ll go eat worms.* (Anyone else familiar with that song??)

What do I do to combat that pity party feeling on the eve of my 28th birthday?

Think about all that my years of being an adult of have held.
Think about the gifts and the blessings. 

Lets calculate all that I have accomplished in the last 10 years of adulthood….just kidding…. I won’t go through all of them with you, because well that is sort of boring for you.

Not for me….it makes me feel special, the same sort of feeling after I get off the phone with my mom.  She thinks I am special! 

However, sometimes thinking about all the negative things are going to make you feel extremely negative about the future, about the present and about the past.  Thinking about the good, the positive, brings to mind all that is possible in the midst of struggle. 

That is what I need to think about.  And to remember that my joy doesn’t rest in the good or bad or my circumstances, because these things change quickly. What doesn’t change, Jesus, he is the same, today, tomorrow, and 10 years from now? 

Ya know….. this post didn’t start out to be a message about how we all have things to be grateful for, it was actually going to be one giant pity party. 

I am grateful though, for my life, for the good, the bad, the blessings and the struggles.  I know that I don’t live for myself, but for glory of the one who loves me and knows me more than anyone on this earth ever could.

So here is a praise for all the years that I have blessed with, and praise that He is kept me here because he isn’t done with me yet.