Birthday Invitation

(I wrote this last year after my birthday. I wanted to share is because it has come up in conversation to help a couple people in their situations. If it has helped a couple people lately through conversation, I’m sure it’ll help someone else. Also my birthday is next week and I could use the reminder myself!)

So the other day for my birthday and I was sitting in reflection over it. I’ve had so many
disappointments over the years around my birthday. I always get excited for my birthday month, but
once it gets close to my birthday I start to feel the disappointment. I am someone who likes to make
someone feel special on their birthday and let them know they were thought of. And though I don’t
expect anyone to do anything for my birthday, it feels nice when someone goes beyond the birthday call or text. I also have had a few not so good memories that creep up from around my birthday as well. So a couple days before my birthday I start to feel a little down, because I expect it to come and go like no other day. I do have to note though that my bestie almost always comes through with something planned. Since we’ve become friends we always had some sort of birthday tradition. But with the exception of my bestie, I’m usually left disappointed thinking maybe this year would have been different.
My birthday started off with my dog not feeling well and was woke up throughout the night cleaning
mess out of the carpet. Then I wanted to make pancakes for myself and I ended up burning them. Throughout the day little unfortunate events happened until I was ready to go to bed. I then decided I was going to have a birthday “re-do” the next day where I would be home alone, I could relax, and enjoy the day. However, that didn’t work out either! I was then over my birthday, ready to move past it.
So now it’s 3 days after my birthday and I was on my walk (walking is where I get a lot of thinking going), and it came to me. Maybe disappointment always happens around my birthday because I invite disappointment in. The devil loves when he can come in a ruin someone’s day! He does not want us to feel joyful or blessed. The more disappointed and hurt we feel, the more he feels accomplished. So when the opportunity arises, he will step right in because the door has been left right open! I’ve now thought about changing how I go into my birthday, Christmas, or any other day for the matter. From now on I need to pray for birthday blessing, pray for protection, that God would have His hand in it, and that Satan would be turned away. I need to stand firm in who or what I invite to my birthday. After I got home from my walk I was journaling about my thoughts, and as I was sitting at the table reading I had seen in the corner of my eye something blowing around. I got up and went to go see what it was, and it was a little green balloon that said “Happy Birthday” on it. And I believe it was God’s way of sending me His Birthday Blessing! And I felt a sense of confirmation from Him.

Is there a day of the year you always dread coming around because of disappointment, bad memories, or pain? I encourage you that when that day starts to roll around, pray for it. Pray that it’ll be different
than years past. That God would lift you up and fill you with joy on that day. That doesn’t mean that day didn’t happen, but if we change our invitations of who we invite in, we may find that disappointment never comes and blessings start to flow.

Who are you inviting to your birthday?