36 Birthday Blessings

Last month I celebrated 36 years of life on this earth. 

I remember when I was a child and the countless birthday parties I had.  One year I had my birthday party at McDonald’s.  The McDonald’s had just opened in my small Arkansas town, and it was THE best place to have a birthday party.  Then there was the year I had a Banana Slip-N-Slide birthday party in my backyard.  Remember those?  If you grew up in the 80's, then I know you do! That one was another favorite of mine.  I’ve had countless bunkin’ parties (sleepovers) and have received many, many gifts.  I was a blessed child to have such a great family and great friends that loved on me.

Then I grew up.  Having a birthday as a grown-up just isn’t the same.  It’s definitely not as fun and just plain awful on the years you have to actually work at a “grown-up” job on your birthday just to pay the bills.  I’ve had plenty of years of that too.  Now I am blessed to not have a job outside my home, so I am officially “off” on my birthday, but I am at that stage in my life where I don’t really need presents anymore.  If I want something at the store, I buy it, birthday or not.  Receiving presents just isn't as fun anymore when you can go out and buy your own gifts. 

Well, I’ve had enough.  Enough of me, me, me.  I wanted a change this year on my birthday.  I wanted to divert the attention from me to somewhere else.  But how do you do that?  How can you change that day and divert attention away, especially on the ONE DAY the attention is ordained to be given to you?  Well, you take your day back and BE THE CHANGE.  

This year I decided to BE THE CHANGE give away 36 birthday blessings for the 36 years God has given me.  I changed the direction of attention from me to everyone else.  I changed the direction of gifts from “for me” to “from me”, and I loved every minute! Here’s how I did it: 

#1: Let it Go 

Let what go? Let go of the fact that you don’t have to have a day of people telling you how great you are.  You have your CREATOR who has already told you that, time and time again.  You don’t need a special day just to remember it.

Also, let go of the fact that you are the only person in this world.  We live in a great big, wide world with lots and lots of people that have never had a birthday cake or may not live to see their next one.  These people need gifts too.  They need the gift of engagement from you.  They are longing to be engaged by someone, anyone, who cares to say hello. 

#2: Pray 

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  So, if you want your birthday to go differently this time, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done before and that takes prayer!  Pray for change!  

Here’s a short list of things to pray for: 
*Change of heart from getting to giving
*Support from your family
*God’s intervention by bringing people into your life that need a blessing
*God’s intervention by bringing organization’s into your life that need love
*God’s complete control of your day, so that no matter where you stop and what you give, it will be someone that God has chosen through you. 

#3: Plan, Plan, Plan 

God can have plans, but you’ve got to work them.  I would like to call myself a good planner, but actually I am a good last minute achiever.  I work so well under pressure.  So, yes, even though I’ve had months to plan my 36 gifts birthday project, I didn’t actually start until about a week before.  Sad, I know.  So…I would recommend starting a little more like 2-4 weeks out from your birthday so you won’t be rushed in gathering supplies, making homemade gifts, and preparing your day.

I actually created and printed stickers to place on most of my gifts.  Here is the image you may download for FREE to use on your special day!

  

#4: Smile and Wave 

If you’re happy, people will notice.  On your big day of delivering your blessings, don’t forget the most important gift you could ever give, a smile. Smile while blessing people.  Let them see you smile.  Let them see your joy!  It is contagious and inspiring. 


Below is a detail of my day of giving out 36 blessings.  I hope this inspires you to do the same on your birthday! 

#1, I first thanked my mother for giving me life 36 years ago by sending her a cookie bouquet (via mail) from Corsco's cookies. Their cookies are delicious!  

#2, I sent the same birthday cookie bouquet to my employer and the office staff.  I feel so blessed each day to work for Harding University and to be able to teach what I love for the Harding's Graduate School of Business  I wanted them to know how thankful I am for my job!

#3, I handmade an "apple" out of fabric and sewed it onto a card.  I then addressed the card to a dear friend and sent her some pictures.  Apples are symbolic to her as she and her husband founded the Timothy Hill Children's Ranch in Riverhead, NY.  I have since heard from her, and she LOVED the card.

 #4, A young man by the name of Monte has quite a testimony of redemption found while a student at the Timothy Hill Children's Ranch.  He is free to leave, yet has decided to stay and serve as a mentor/counselor to the other young boys who come to the children's home.  My son made him a paracord bracelet and my daughter drew him a picture.  We sent these to him via mail.

  #5, I have a friend who is going through very tough mental, emotional, & financial drought.  I wanted to cheer her up by sending her a random "thinking of you" card and a prepaid Kroger gas card.  I have since heard back from her and she was overwhelmed with thankfulness.  God is good!

#6, I wrote encouraging letters to friends, included printed pictures of us together, and slipped them in the mail.  No one EVER prints pictures anymore, so to actually have a printed picture to put on a refrigerator is priceless!  (please know that this is my first picture of the day, so my eyes haven't quite opened yet!)

  

#7, I left a little box of candies in the mailbox for our postal carrier.  I put on the box my R.A.O.K. sticker and a little blue note of thanks for door-delivering all my packages and boxes!

#8, I bought a dozen donuts and delivered them to my church office.  Honestly, they don't received many "group" thank-you sentiments or goodies, so this was fun.

#9, I bought a few dozen sticky notes from the Target dollar section, and delivered them to my church's Day School.  They were in the shape of owls, light bulbs, and notebooks....very cute! The week of my birthday was their actual first week back at school, so I was able to bless all the teachers with a special treat.

#10, My children handmade two paracord bracelets for our church's Children's ministry summer interns.  These two guys are a joy to children and made the summer's church activities memorable!

#11, I bought a huge box of doggie bones at Costco and donated them to my Vet's office.  My family LOVES our local vet's office; it's a nice, little neighborhood veterinary clinic.  We frequent there often as we have two dogs and a guinea pig so being able to donate something to them was a blessing.

#12, This next one is awesome.  I bought a dozen donuts and delivered to my local Fire Station.  They were all awake and were thrilled to get some breakfast!  They were very courteous  to us & gave us all personal tour of the station and vehicles. 

Here are my kids in the EMT vehicle. 

Here I am in the Fire Truck with a helmet on.
This was soooo cool and completely unexpected.  

#13, I had my children makes paracord bracelets for our local Starbucks' crew.  My husband and I have a personal relationship with most of the people at our Starbucks, so delivering a little blessing to them wasn't a question.  You can see I tied them on a 4x6 index card with twine and placed a R.A.O.K. sticker on the bottom.  They loved them!

#14, While at Starbucks, I bought this lady's morning coffee.  She was completely surprised!  I loved seeing her face.

#15, I took a dozen donuts to our favorite Christian private school here in Memphis, Harding Academy.  It was teacher-in-service week for the school, so I wanted to bless the office staff who has worked so hard getting the new school year off to a great start.

#16, I gave my bank teller a charm cord bracelet that my daughter made.  I, intentionally, saved a check I needed to deposit for my birthday, so I would have to go through the drive-through of my local bank.  My sweet teller gives my kids suckers every time I go to the bank.  She was very shocked!  Look at her face!  I love it!

#17, I took a big goody bag full of toys from the Target dollar section to the Baptist Women's hospital waiting room.  I wanted to bless the siblings in the waiting room waiting for a baby brother or sister to be born on the same day I was born!

Here is a little boy who picked the bag of dinosaurs.
Look at his smile!

#18, I taped exact change on the vending machines in the hospital.  I placed them in a cute, ziplocked bag with a R.A.O.K. sticker on it.

#19, I went to Target and put taped these signs in the women's dressing room stalls.  Isn't this the worst place to EVER be?  I hate dressing rooms.  I always feel completely miserable when I walk out.  I thought this message was appropriate:

#20, I let my husband pick out lunch.  It was my birthday, so I would usually get to pick.  But, this year I let him.  We went to his favorite Mexican restaurant in Memphis, Las Delicias.

#21, We left a generous tip to our waitress at lunch.  I left it in this ziplocked bag with a R.A.O.K. sticker.

#22, I took 3 dozen cookies to the Agape offices.  Agape is a non-profit organization whose mission is helping unfortunate families find healthy homes through adoption or assisted living programs.

#23, I took one dozen cookies to the staff and students at HopeWorks.  HopeWorks is a Memphis based organization that serves the poor and rejected of Memphis by offering spiritual guidance, counseling, and life skills training.

#24, I served the families and staff of the 4th floor at Le Bonheur Children's Hospital here in Memphis by delivering individually packaged cookies.  I took around 3 dozen.  This hospital is amazing, and I am blessed to be able to serve them.

#25, I also served the children on the 4th floor with an array of fun toys and activities, compliments of the Target dollar section!  I bought silly putty, army men, doctor kits, and color books.  I hope they loved them.

#26, One of my favorite birthday parties growing up was the party I had at McDonald's.  It was neat to be able to serve at the Ronald McDonald House, a partner of St. Jude in housing families of ill children, free of charge.  It was back-to-school season, so these kiddo's deserved some new crayons and coloring books too!  I bought several dozen of each and took in 3 buckets and delivered. 

#27, On our way back from downtown Memphis, we stopped at a rundown Laundromat.  I don't have a picture of this (sorry).  I ran in and found an older lady doing her laundry and gave her 2 Tide packets (3 in each bag) for her laundry.  I wish I had her face on camera!  The surprise and shock made the day.

 
#28, We stopped at Chick-Fil-A for an afternoon treat and, while in the drive-through line, paid for the customer's order behind us.  This is a R.A.O.K card that I gave to the Chick-Fil-A attendant to pass on to the car behind us.  This was a fun one!

#29, I delivered a dozen cookies (a great afternoon treat) to my children's pediatric office.  This office is superb.  I cannot say how please we are with the staff and their attention to my kids. 

#30, if you drive through Memphis often, you're likely to see a homeless person asking for food.  It is such a sad sight and my compassion to help them overwhelms me.  There is a homeless man that lives at an intersection I frequent often.  I made a blessing bag for him and dropped it by his home.  He wasn't around, unfortunately, so we left it by his belongings.

I filled my blessing bag with: peanuts, cookies, spam, kleenex, aspirin, mouthwash, body wash/shampoo, a water bottle, and a $5 bill.

#31, We went to our neighborhood park and handed out bottled waters on the VERY HOT DAY.  It was a great way to "break the ice" with strangers and just say hello.

#32, I went to our library parking lot and put 36 prayer notes on 36 car windshields.  I had to go total stealth mode for this one, but it was done!  I loved it.  I wish I could've stuck around to see their face when they read the note.

#33, We stopped by Barnes & Noble and scoped out a family to bless with a Barnes & Noble gift card.  I found this family sitting in the children's section.  They already had several books in their hands that they were planning to purchase.  I wish you could've seen their face when I told them what I was doing and what I had to give them.  They were so shocked.  God is good. It gave me an opportunity to talk about my joy in Jesus and why I wanted to bless them.

#34, I don't have an exact picture of this, but you can see a stack of bookmarks on the table.  I went around Barnes & Noble and passed the bookmarks out to children.  I bought this package of 24 bookmarks at Target for $1.00 total!

#35, I taped a bag of popcorn in a ziplock bag on a RedBox machine.  I placed a R.A.O.K. sticker on it.  I love giving the "unseen" blessings. 

#36, Last but not least...I took the trash out at the end of the day.  To most of you this may not seem like a big deal, but believe me, IT WAS.  I NEVER take the trash out.  It is the kids' job to get the trash together and it is my husband's role to take it to the curb.  Well, while the kids were upstairs playing and my husband was out taking the dogs on a walk, I secretly gathered the trash and pulled it to the curb.  My husband's face was priceless when he'd seen what I had done. 

We ended the day with a few chocolate cupcakes and a few candles and to the tune of "Happy Birthday to You".