1975 Wow!! What a crazy year!!
Just a disclaimer…obviously this is AI…IMO the only one that looks close to me is the 3rd one & even that one makes my face look to fat!!
Just to catch you up some of the highlights of that year were…
10. Gerald Ford was President
9. The Vietnam war ended April 30
8. Also in April Bill gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in Gates’ garage
7. The Price of gas was $.53
6. Most popular toy was the pet rock! (I never understood this invention) 😊
5. The most popular fast food chain was Taco Bell
4. On Oct.11, 1975 the very first episode of SNL aired
3. The Price of a movie ticket was $2.03
2. The #1 Blockbuster movie of the summer was Jaws!!
1. And the #1 highlight of 1975 (at least according to my family) on July 8, I was born!
I still can’t believe it? Have you reached an age yet where you say, “yes I am this age, but I just don’t feel like it!” I have been saying that for about a decade and a half. Of course there are days where my body aches, but I remember being a kid and thinking “50, that’s the age of my grandparents”. Then it became the age of my parents, then my brother, now me!!
I sit back and dwell on my life and think, what have I done, what am I doing and what is left to be done, every moment I am alive God has me on this planet for a reason, the mission is easy, in Mark 16:15 it tells us, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone”.
From the time I was very little I wanted to be a mom, I wanted to have lots of kids! One of my friends from high school got married right after graduating High School, she now has 8 children and 7 grandchildren. She let her hair go all natural gray and even though we are the same age, she does not look like it, she is so beautiful, even all those kids later. I would have loved to have a big family of my own, that was my greatest desire, why did God not grant me this? I was always very glad I had siblings growing up and still now, sometimes I feel sorry for people who are only children, I often wonder if they get lonely having no one to blame their problems on, no one to fight with or no one to have adventures with.
I also wanted to be many things when I grew up for example, a teacher, my Aunt Karen was a teacher and always made it seem fun. I also had two teachers that to this day have made a lasting impact on my life. My 3rd grade teacher Mrs. Henry and my 5th grade teacher Miss Scott. Then in high school they’re were 2 coaches who were very popular and loved everyone, even if you weren’t very popular :). Shout out to Coach and Mrs. McCray!
My life was interrupted in a dramatic way @ age 15 when I was diagnosed with Epilepsy. For many years I was able to control my seizures with medicine and could work and drive. In 2010 however my life took a terrible turn, I had a seizure while driving, it was very scary. I felt it coming and screamed out the name of Jesus, the next thing I remember was hearing a horn honking at me. I had passed out and was veering into another lane. So I woke up and was able pull into the median, thankfully at that time there was no cement wall built like there is now, it was just grass. About 2 weeks later I had quit my job and started collecting Disability, which I still do today. Unfortunately in the last 15 years, the Drs still haven’t been able to get the seizures under control.
In 2011 my grandpa Barkman died, while at the funeral reception a member of his church whom I had never met until that day asked me if I was Fran’s niece. Fran was my grandpa’s oldest daughter, I told her yes, she then told me, she felt like God wanted her to tell me that people needed to hear my story. I asked her what story? At this time I was 36 and still young enough not to know what God could possibly want me to tell. I then told her that I have Epilepsy could that be it? She said maybe, she didn’t know the story, she just wanted me to know, it needed to be told. Later that year I started writing and I can say now that I’m about half way through my auto biography. I understand now what people mean when they a certain thing they have been writing has been “so many years” in the making, it’s hard.
Now that I am 50 and have learned so much more and I understand the Bible verse Proverbs 16:9 “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” I would have loved to marry in my 20s and start a family young. I would have loved to have been a teacher. I could’ve spent so many years being bitter at God, being angry and questioning or saying it’s not fair. It’s not fair. It’s not fair! However, growing up as a kid my mom used to ground us when we would say that, so I’ve learned never to use those three words, ha ha.
If it were up to me, my life would’ve been so different, but I also learned through these 50 years believe it or not my life is not about me. This life is a gift that God gave and he also gave the gift of salvation. Our lives are about him, go into all the nations and make disciples. That’s what we are to do and we all have different ways of doing that. Some are musicians, pastors, some are teachers, encouragers, some are writers, parents, and still so many different talents. . I believe I have fit into some of those categories over the years. I have found that I have been an encourager, a writer and of course a teacher. God has given me the gift of teaching through Sunday school. I never became a full-time elementary school teacher, but I teach Sunday school every single week at my church two services in a row, four-year-olds! When I come home, I’m exhausted! God gave me the taste of motherhood by giving me two younger siblings And a total of nine nieces and nephews which I am eternally grateful for! I love being an aunt!
I’m not afraid of getting older, and I’m not afraid of dying, because whenever God chooses to take me home, I know I will be in heaven. And I will be in heaven with my friends and family who have gone before me. If you are scared of dying or are not sure where you will spend eternity you need to talk to God! You need to have a relationship with him. There is no time like the present putting it off is not OK. Tomorrow is not promised and time flies here I am at 50,wow!! If you have been to Church in the past but you haven’t been lately it’s time to go back! You can’t just pick and choose which Bible verses you want to apply to your life. You need to live by them all and be able to come to a point in life where you can say to yourself I am not afraid of dying! Hell is a real place, and forever is indeed forever, I would like everyone who reads this to one day join me in Heaven!!
Here’s to another 50! Happy birthday to me.
#birthday #50 #writer #blogs #halfacentury #wow #teacher #God #salvation
