I celebrated my 61^st birthday this month and I feel empowered. So many people lament about their birthday and complain about how old they are. I have made it a point to not be one of them.

The temptation to be negative is powerful. I get it. I lamented my twentieth birthday mourning the loss of being a teenager. But that attitude left me powerless. Other opportunities arose to lament but I learned something.

The power in celebrating your birthday is what you focus on.

POWER OF FOCUS

Celebrating a birthday means you’re alive and that’s cause for celebration all by itself. When I turned twenty, I was focusing on loss instead of life.

When I turned thirty, something powerful happened. I had a completely different focus.

I heard people lamenting the oldness of turning thirty as if it was the end of their life. My focus was on all the growth and change in my life, and I celebrated with a passion.

Before that birthday I used to bite my nails and make them bleed.

Before that birthday I legally changed my name and began a new adventure in growth. I found a new joy.

Focusing on your victories and hope for the future is powerful.

SCALING THE DIFFICULT

I didn’t have any trouble with turning forty, but fifty was difficult.

Seeing it coming somehow had evil forebodings. I don’t know if I had watched too much television, or listened to too many people complain, but the foreboding wanted to strip me of power and drive me into hiding.

I fought back.

Even though I can’t say I celebrated turning fifty with passion, I can say I didn’t go into hiding like the feelings wanted me to. I pressed through and celebrated anyway.

The threat of turning fifty being the end of my life was a lie.

Birthdays don’t kill us – they’re just a day providing an opportunity to celebrate. I purposed to be a celebrater going forward.

Choosing to celebrate anyway gives you the power to scale difficult birthdays.

POWER TO CELEBRATE

Last year was a milestone birthday for me. I turned sixty. I saw it coming like I saw fifty coming, but I responded differently.

This time I prepared to celebrate with passion.

Instead of listening to the plethora of negative chatter about getting older and the countless “organ recitals” available, I used the same power of focus I did at thirty but with a twist.

I counted my blessings and savored with a smile.

The ability to do this “savoring” was through a family vacation, and a book my family made for me with words from many people saying how I impacted their lives.

Many things went wrong with both. I got injured the first night – the dresser drawer fell on my foot crushing it and slicing it open. And the book my family made was delayed due to the publisher and they shared it’s content with me on an iPad.

Still, the day was filled with blessings.

Things go wrong sometimes, it’s inevitable. But for my sixtieth birthday, we focused on all the good and I felt well celebrated. This year was a non-issue.

Focusing on the good gives you the power to celebrate yourself well.

CELEBRATE YOURSELF

If those two words, celebrate yourself, stir up negative feelings or create push back, it’s evidence of a problem. I know because I used to have that problem.

Celebrating myself was something I had trouble doing because of how I saw myself.

I used to be full of self-hatred and attacked myself to punish myself. I didn’t feel I had the right to exist let alone celebrate who I was. I was good at the opposite of celebrating: blaming, condemning, neglecting etc. Not anymore.

I have learned I have immense value and so do you.

We are created in the image and likeness of God. I had heard that before, but it was religious gibberish to me. What made the difference? Discovering how God saw me, learning about His grace, unlearning legalism, and healing from trauma.

You can celebrate yourself when you see what God sees in you.

WHAT GOD SEES

You are not an accident. It doesn’t matter if your parents said you were. I was told I was, but God doesn’t have accidents. God celebrates us.

The celebration of God was an eye-opener for me. I’d suffered from a negative view of Him for a long time. But God pursued me and convinced me of His love. Then He convinced me of my value and showed me how He saw me.

He loves you just as much, and you have the same immense value.

You deserve to be celebrated because you have inherent value to one who created you.

There is only one me, and there is only one you. You are unique.

You have things you can do, things you can say, things you can share that no one else can. The world needs you.

That makes you precious. Not in the cutesy kind of way but in the precious metals and precious gems kind of way. Very valuable like a treasure.

Seeing how God sees empowers you to celebrate the day you were born.

WHAT NEXT

• How will you celebrate your next birthday?
• What birthday did you have a difficult time with?
• Do you need to be convinced of God’s love? Get my story.

Danielle Bernock

Author, Coach, and Speaker helping men, women, and organizations EMERGE with clear vision of their value, TAKE ownership of their choices, and CHART a path to their promise, becoming Victorious Souls who Embrace The Change from survive to thrive through the power of the love of God

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