{"id":10847,"date":"2019-08-26T05:27:22","date_gmt":"2019-08-26T10:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=10847"},"modified":"2019-08-26T05:27:28","modified_gmt":"2019-08-26T10:27:28","slug":"its-my-birthday-i-can-cry-happy-tears-if-i-want-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/?p=10847","title":{"rendered":"It&#8217;s My Birthday. I Can Cry Happy Tears if I Want To."},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Nana-Larry-Staci-Payton-Alexia-Overcomer-Movie2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10854\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Nana-Larry-Staci-Payton-Alexia-Overcomer-Movie2.jpg 960w, https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Nana-Larry-Staci-Payton-Alexia-Overcomer-Movie2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Nana-Larry-Staci-Payton-Alexia-Overcomer-Movie2-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Nana-Larry-Staci-Payton-Alexia-Overcomer-Movie2-120x90.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Sweet time with my Frisco family yesterday at a great restaurant and then to see the new &#8220;Overcomer&#8221; movie. I was totally on that bandwagon of celebrating me. This is my life &#8212; the only one that was meant for me. Alexia asked &#8220;Nana, how does it feel to be younger than the Great Depression? How does it feel being younger than the greatest drought ever that led to the dust bowl years? How does it feel to be younger than the Empire State Building?&#8221; With happy tears, I was elated that something was older than me! ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Donna-Blue-Suit-easter.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10849\" width=\"343\" height=\"514\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Donna-Blue-Suit-easter.jpg 427w, https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Donna-Blue-Suit-easter-200x300.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 343px) 100vw, 343px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>And I&#8217;m so grateful to be younger than something\u2026.especially when my doctors, lawyers, teachers and preachers\u2026..are younger than me!  Honestly, I&#8217;m so blessed beyond what I deserve with the love that I\u2019ve received from friends and family. I\u2019ve been made to feel that I matter. And, the real crux of the matter for you AND me is &#8212; we always did and always will matter because we are God\u2019s treasures.  \u201cThey shall be mine, says the LORD of hosts, in the day when I make up my treasured possession.\u201d Malachi 3:17<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Treasures.  God always saw us as treasures and on our birthdays we get to rock that truth. I\u2019m rocking even as I type this post today. While the media leads us to believe that youth somehow has more value, the truth is, we are treasured by God at every age. Not only that, but He gives us specific gifts to share with the world in every season of our lives. We best be owning and sharing those gifts.  They are the specific ones God planted within us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Birthdays are a big deal \u2013 because birthdays represent our God-given mission and destiny and every year that we\u2019re here, we get to celebrate our journey. And with each year &#8212; we have the opportunity to celebrate &#8212; not just THE day, but EACH day that God gives us. Celebrating it with a joyful, thankful, forgiving heart that is open to bringing forth flourishing fruit. So, today, let&#8217;s party &#8212; at least in the sense of celebrating YOU and me!  Whether you are 8, 38 or 88\u2026..you are to be celebrated. You&#8217;re still bearing fruit.  We&#8217;re still here\u2026.we&#8217;re not done!   &#8220;They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be vigorous and flourishing.&#8221; Psalm 92:14<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Donna-Hope-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10851\" width=\"348\" height=\"464\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Donna-Hope-2.jpg 720w, https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Donna-Hope-2-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 348px) 100vw, 348px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The anthem of the musical, \u201cThe Greatest Showman\u201d was \u201cThis is Me\u201d, sung by Keala Settle.  As I was looking for the lyrics for this post, I saw the original video of Keala singing the song with the rest of the vocalists in a practice room for the first time with Hugh Jackman. Of course she was intimidated at first.  She didn\u2019t even want to step out from behind the music stand.  You must see the transformation that took place as she sang the song as if it were her own anthem. I was in tears, and I think you will be, too!  \u201cThis is Me\u201d \u2013 let\u2019s own who God made us to be.  He has plans and purposes that only we can fulfill.  Walk out being YOU!   Because YOU matter!  <br> Here is the video:  <br> https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=XLFEvHWD_NE <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Look out &#8217;cause here I come; <br>And I&#8217;m marching on to the beat I drum.<br>I&#8217;m not scared to be seen; I make no apologies, this is me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sweet time with my Frisco family yesterday at a great restaurant and then to see the new &#8220;Overcomer&#8221; movie. I was totally on that bandwagon of celebrating me. This is my life &#8212; the only one that was meant for me. Alexia asked &#8220;Nana, how does it feel to be younger than the Great Depression?&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14358,14471,14470,14472],"tags":[156,8818,9418,1254,14467,14469,14465,14466,1814,14468,3261,11824],"class_list":["post-10847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birthday","category-cry","category-tears","category-this-is-me","tag-birthday","tag-celebrating","tag-flourishing","tag-fruit","tag-gifts-to-share","tag-greatest-showman","tag-happy-tears","tag-malachi-317","tag-psalm-9214","tag-this-is-me","tag-treasures","tag-youth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10847"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10855,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10847\/revisions\/10855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}