Birthday Blessings

Birthday's are always hard for me. I love to hate them. I love others peoples but I hate my own. It's not for the usual stuff like getting old that I don't mind. It's the not really wanting a big deal made over it but wanting a big deal made.

Maybe for me birthdays really should be everyday. My birthday this year I learned something about following the spirit. This year I had so many people follow the spirit and it truly blessed my life. Such as my VT. She told me about her week on Sunday every day last week she felt she should make a cake. She couldn't figure it out why she needed to make a cake, the only friend she knew that was having a birthday lived to far away. Then she felt she should check her calendar but every time she would think about it she would get off track or not be near it. So she went ahead and followed her prompting and got the stuff for the cake. Then later that week she realized it was my birthday.

My hubby forgot to buy eggs to make a cake so I didn't have a cake. No big deal I thought maybe next year. Then later that evening my VT called me and told me of the above story and would I mind if she brought it over. When I got off the phone I cried. My day was not that big of a deal, there were no presents. Yet the Lord found it fit to bless my day anyway. This is just one example of the many blessings I received that day.

This year our Visiting Teaching Messages have been about Becoming an instrument in the hands of God.

Kathleen H. Hughes, first counselor in the Relief Society general presidency: “The Lord has touched my spirit time and again, and more often than not, His touch has reached me through the hand of a friend. … Perhaps [we] would feel more of His love if [we] looked for His hand in the actions of those who care for [us]. … God knows the needs of His children, and He often works through us, prompting us to help one another. When we act on such promptings, we tread on holy ground, for we are allowed the opportunity to serve as an agent of God in answering a prayer” (“What Greater Goodness Can We Know: Christlike Friends,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2005, 74–76).

President Gordon B. Hinckley: “There is no end to the good we can do, to the influence we can have with others. Let us not dwell on the critical or the negative. Let us pray for strength; let us pray for capacity and desire to assist others. Let us radiate the light of the gospel at all times and all places, that the Spirit of the Redeemer may radiate from us. In the words of the Lord to Joshua … , ‘be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God [will be] with thee whithersoever thou goest’ (Joshua 1:9)” (“The Need for Greater Kindness,” Liahona and Ensign, May 2006, 61).

How grateful I am to my kind Heavenly Father for my birthday gifts that meant more to me than any gift I could have dreamed wanting.

Now I must go write thank-you notes!