It’s my pre-birthday…you don’t celebrate that? Weird. We have been doing family things all day, it started out with house hunting. Found one we all really liked, but decided against when the application fee was $500, and they could still tell you no. What?! Then we went out to eat. Spanish food, one word, YUM! After food came shopping, yunno, to walk off what we ate (makes complete sense). Shopping is my favorite form of exercise. So it stands to reason that this would be the tool God would use to teach me a lesson. On Friday my co-workers celebrated my birthday (it’s not till Monday aka Day 287). There was cake, balloons, and a Visa gift card loaded with money (sigh…I LOVE my co-workers 😉 ). Today during the pre-birthday festivities I decided I would buy a little something in honor of the “real” birthday. Here’s what happened, everything fit! Everything looked great, but I was not satisfied with any of it. I would decided on an outfit, or an item and then on my way to the register it would hit me, “I really don’t want any of this.” I swear I must have done that at least five times. As we drove back home (empty handed). I learned this lesson: On this journey, sometimes we gain more when we choose NOT to get. I had the ability and opportunity to buy the things I wanted, but it felt so unsatisfying. When I came home I was happy that I still had my gift, it hadn’t been squandered on useless stuff. People gave freely to allow me the opportunity to buy something I truly desired. I want to honor their giving. God has done the same with life, it is a gift He has given us freely. Don’t squander it on useless stuff…HONOR the gift.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

So what am I thankful for today? Learning not to squander the gift.