This journal entry was made a few days ago, on my birthday:
What a wonderful day I had today! I spent the day with my family, and I received lots of birthday messages and good wishes! I felt incredibly loved today.
A couple of highlights from today: Son traveled through the night on a Greyhound bus from college just so he could be here when I woke up! And Daughter's birthday message to me this year...well I have no words...
Material things are of limited importance, as far as I'm concerned. The genuine love of family and friends, that's where the true wealth lies.
I turned 46 today. With age, I like to think that I've also grown wiser. But with more wisdom there has also been a keen and sometimes uncomfortable awareness of my character flaws. However I also know that it is precisely because of my shortcomings that I came to experience this amazing Grace of my God! This Grace is completely unmerited in my life. Yet He continues to favor me. And I know that He is still working in me!
AND so, as my birthday winds to a close, my most enduring thought is this: the thing I am most grateful for, is this: the Grace of God upon my life....
