Celebrating Me Because I Am His: A Reflection

There was a time when I felt like my birthday was starting to lose it’s luster. Birthdays meant having to acknowledge being another year older and everything that entails. Wondering when gray hairs were going to start popping up and wrinkles were going to show themselves, or when my metabolism was going to officially rebel against me.

And worst yet, my birthday meant looking back at the previous year and wondering what I could have done better or where I let opportunities drop. Birthdays began to be more about focusing on all of my negatives. Sure I would be gracious and enjoy cards, presents and well-wishes. I would feel blessed to have my Facebook timeline filled with people taking the time to celebrate me.

But I wasn’t celebrating me.

And then a few years back I was reading Psalm 139:14 (NIV):

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

It certainly wasn’t the first time I had read the verse but it was the first time it struck my core. You know what I mean. The tingles and butterflies in your stomach kind of realization. I think in past readings of the verse I had only really focused on “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”. That’s generally the focus on the t-shirts and the coffee mugs!

But this time I seemed to fully digest all of the verse and its depth.

“Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

I believed this when I looked at the sunsets and the night sky. I believed this every time I noticed the intricacy of a flower. And my children! Of course I believe they are wonderful. As well as my husband. But I hadn’t been fully acknowledging a key component. I am His creation, too! It had been so easy for me to gloss over that important factor without allowing it to sink in.

How often have you glossed over that part, too?

“I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”

If all of God’s works are wonderful and I am one of God’s works, then I am wonderful!

I’m not sure if this seems simplistic for anybody else but this was the realization I had been waiting my whole life for but didn’t know. It had finally dawned on me that it was more than okay to believe I was good.

Self-esteem and self-worth are something I wrestled with for a long time. It had been unintentionally reinforced for me to believe that my worth was based upon how others viewed me. I believed that if I was good or talented or dare I say beautiful, it was viewed as conceited or showing off.

But that verse and realization blew my false belief out of the water! Talk about replacing negative thoughts with positive ones!

I experienced tears, laughter, and a deep hole inside myself finally being filled. I didn’t have to feel embarrassed or ashamed when I was proud of myself. There didn’t need to be the internal conflict anymore. I pray that you experience that kind of healing, too.

Forward Progress

I can’t say that I never experience self-doubt or self-consciousness. I do. Oh boy, I definitely do. But I have this verse and so many others to go back to. And when my negative self-talk rears it’s ugly head, I have God’s word to break apart my insecurities. I encourage you to seek God’s word to help understand your worth and identity in Christ.

Now, when it gets closer and closer to my birthday, I get excited like a little kid once more. I take the day off work and I treat myself. There doesn’t have to be a party or presents. But I take the day to celebrate me because I am His and all of His works are wonderful.

Celebrating you, because you are His, whether on your birthday or anytime of the year, is a way to acknowledge the wonder of God through His creations!