New Beginnings

It’s my birthday month.  I am one who enjoys celebrating my birthday for the entire month!  Yes- blame my parents (specifically, my dad lol).  My husband,

my sons, and my brother continue the tradition, as well.  I am thankful and I find so much joy in celebrating each of them and their birthday month🎉

l do not mind seeing the next number as I reach the day.  My journey has been blessed and good, overall.  I have much to be thankful for in the good and through the not-so-good.  We all have both, don’t we?

Although there is fun and truth with my celebration month story, my “birthday” is not the only reason I enjoy observing the event. I look at the final days of my current year as the right moment to interrupt my daily routine and consider what God has done in me.  Reflecting on the current year matters to me.  Where God has brought me, what He has taught me, how much I have experienced with Him causes a pause in days leading up to my new year.  Prayers of where God wants to take me, what He wants to teach me, and how much He wants me to experience Him- begin to flow.  

I have recognized with each birthday that a chapter closes, and a new one opens.  The “what was” needs to be put behind me, and the “what is,” “what is to come”- with God- is in focus and before me.  Leaving things behind- both good and not-so-good, can be challenging.  It is hard to relinquish a good season that has come to an end.  Yet, there is the realization that lifetime good and specific blessed connections along our way continue by the hand of God.  Surprisingly, the not-so-good is the most difficult to let go.  For they encompass the disappointments, the fails, the painful, and even the broken that leave you with no answers.  This is the enemy’s greatest playbook- to have you hold on to what you could not fix.  Nonetheless, it has a place. A place in the past.  

Philippians 3:13-14 NIV

13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 

14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

This is where God creates a New Beginning.  With the birthday, there is the opening of saying goodbye to the former things- including- you.  In the birthday is the new beginning for the present!  The gift that is now.  For the new beginning- by God’s hand- offers a new you, should you accept it from God.  

It is a beautiful process celebrating the birthday month!  For old things are put away and the new beginning dawns a fresh breath of opportunity, optimism, and overcoming with God.  

In addition to my incredible husband, sons, and daughter-in-love, I am grateful for who God has placed in my life.  Relationships that are family as well as friends.  Friends who have been there through thick and thin.  

I don’t want anyone in my life that doesn’t want to be there.  I only want who God has for me today and to come.  Those who extend prayer, effort, love, trustworthiness, interest, and receive the same from the friendship I have to share.  When we can enjoy each other and our friendship seamlessly- it’s real, and I’m all in!  I am that authentic, available, loyal, encouraging, cheering, and praying friend …to the end.  

The challenge I have always given myself is prayerfully to leave someone better after time spent with me or my writings because of Jesus.  My prayer has been and is that Jesus is recognized in every aspect of my life.  I’ve never been competitive with others.  My competition is with me- to be better in the Lord today than I was yesterday, due to my encounters with Him.  

This leads me back to the theme of the Encouraging Post- New Beginnings.  May you enjoy the new beginning that is next in your life with the Lord.  May you see who He has created you to be in the next phase of your adventure.  May the next new beginning bring God's very best for all you've been praying for and for you. I pray as we keep this perspective- we know the peace and presence of God in ways we never imagined.  

If you need information on receiving Jesus as your Savior, please visit my Invitation and Prayer page.  Contact me at thumanburgin@gmail.com if you have questions or prayer requests.  You can also stop by the Prayer Requests page to complete and submit a prayer request form.  I assure you, I will pray with you.  

New Beginnings …a refreshing reminder to reflect and restart with God.  I’m waiting on the Lord, seeking Him, and looking forward to what God has for my 58th orbit around the sun- I trust Him.  My prayer is that you experience all He has for you in your new, for the glory of Jesus. 

Oh, dear Reader, start the new beginning focused on this never-changing promise ...Jesus loves you so!