Today is my birthday. On July 17th, 1970, in Huntington Beach, CA, I was born. I looked up historical things that happened on that day and literally all that the google could come up with was this:
“30,000 attend Randall’s Island Rock Festival, NYC”
It was a very slow news day (although I do share the day, not the year, with Disneyland so that’s cool)
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| Are you people going to try and tell me that you didn’t know that was going to be trouble? |
But since that fateful day of the Randall’s Island Rock Festival, I have grown up and have learned a lot about life and living and loving. So here we go:
Five Vital Life Lessons
- Always buy toilet paper in bulk. Because there is no way you will ever say to yourself “why do we have so much toilet paper?”
- When you have little children with you and you want to take them to a fast food playground, go through the drive through and get the food FIRST. This will save you chasing them all over the place while you’re trying to get the order done.
- You can tell the character of a person by the way they treat those who are helping them (food servers, parking attendants, grocery clerks, etc). If they are nice to you but mean to those people, they are not good people. Pray for them but don’t marry them or make them your best friend.
- Your body works best when you move every day, break a sweat at least 4 times a week, and put healthy food into it at least 60% of the time. It’s like a great car that’s gotta last you YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. So you may want to take really good care of it and make sure you’re doing the appropriate maintenance.
- God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life. Bill Bright wrote this as law #1 of the Four Spiritual Laws approximately one million years ago and we all memorized it before church youth group choir tours. We make fun of it a lot now (sorry, Campus Crusade we love you) but he was right. It’s true.
That seems to cover it. If you keep these five in mind, I feel like you’ll have all you need to be successful in life. Maybe not. But they are a start.
I’m going to spend today eating and drinking pretty much whatever I want and thanking God for one more year to spend loving and being loved. And I give every one of you permission to eat a cupcake today in honor of my big day. You’re welcome.
And Happy Running.
Aww! Happy Birthday Jenn! I am so thankful you are who you are and that God saw fit for us to cross paths. You are such an inspiration to so many and I feel blessed to call you my friend. <3 Love you girl! Have an awesome day and year ahead!
Thanks so much, Brandy! So appreciate your encouragement!
Happy Birthday!!!!! Have an absolutely wonderful day.
thank you, Heather!!
Happy Birthday and thank you for sharing! I really needed to hear #4. I just turned 30 myself in June and I can already tell if I don’t stay on top of being active I will slip quickly and not feel well.
Keia – we are walking a hard road with my mom in law right now and a big part of the decline in her health is that she didn’t stay active! I already knew that intellectually but watching it play out real time in her body is a huge motivator! Good luck and go, Gril! You got this!
Happy Belated Birthday, Jennifer! I agree with you on #3. I am visibly uncomfortable when a person feels like they can treat an absolute stranger with indignity. It isn’t the kind of characteristic that I like as a part of my landscape.
I like the way you put that – we can totally choose who we allow to be part of that landscape! Very well stated. And thanks for the bday wishes!