Great birthday memories! First birthday as a dad, then 2 years ago, and then this morning. Jen, Addison, and Brooklyn always make my birthdays special, and I appreciate how many people have wished me a happy birthday today!
Ecclesiastes 7:1 mentions birthdays; it sounds kinda depressing but really has a great message: “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth.” This verse isn’t telling us to wish for death or stop celebrating birth. It’s challenging us to remember that we have only a short time on this earth so we should live a life worth celebrating, a life where our “good name” will be an example to others even after our lives are over. Birthdays are fun to celebrate, but I hope each of you are ready for what comes after this life. Have you accepted Jesus’ offer of salvation? If so, are you living a life that God can reward and others can celebrate even after you’re in heaven?
Births are definitely worth celebrating, but a life lived for God is even better!
Extra Bible Reading I Try to Do Each Day:
Psalm 39:1 I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. 2 I was dumb with silence, I held my peace, even from good; and my sorrow was stirred. 3 My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue, 4 Lord, make me to know mine end, and the measure of my days, what it is: that I may know how frail I am. 5 Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity. Selah. 6 Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain: he heapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them. 7 And now, Lord, what wait I for? my hope is in thee. 8 Deliver me from all my transgressions: make me not the reproach of the foolish. 9 I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it. 10 Remove thy stroke away from me: I am consumed by the blow of thine hand. 11 When thou with rebukes dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume away like a moth: surely every man is vanity. Selah. 12 Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 13 O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go hence, and be no more.