25 years.

Sometimes you wonder if you'll ever make it to a certain age, because we all know how long it felt before we reached the age 18. And then there are some ages that creep up on you out of no where... These are the ones you dread. Time flies. No matter how many times people say that, it doesn't quite sink in until you're living it out and/or until you begin to grow "old." Time becomes so much more valuable as we get older, because we realize how truly fleeting it has always been.

Maybe it's a good thing that the only human interaction I will have on my 25th birthday is with youth. Maybe God is trying to remind me of my YOUTH. 25 is not death. I'm not a child anymore, but I'm certainly not DONE. There is so much to look forward to in every day, every year, ever moment. There is so much life left to live.

On days such as "birthdays," I make the mistake of looking to the joys & definitions of joy in the world. But that's all wrong. Joy is in your heart. It's not a thing, it's a being. He is your joy, your strength, you life. Jesus is my joy. I don't need stuff or all the things that this world can offer me. That's nothing. Nothing compared to what God has in store. I don't need a party to celebrate the life God has given me. I just needed a reminder of that blessing.

"The full flood of my life is not in bodily health, not in external happenings, not in seeing God's work succeed, but in the perfect understanding of God, & in the communion with Him that Jesus Himself had." -Oswald Chambers, August 31st, "My Joy... Your Joy."

Stop being self-conscious & live the life hid with Christ!!

"Be rightly related to God, find your joy there, & out of you will flow rivers of living water."

Today is the day that the Lord has made. I will rejoice & be glad in it. Even if I'm a day older for it.

Happy 25th to me...

-Kristen