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Cold rain pelted the windshield, making it hard for me to see the familiar road leading to my friend Peggy's house. As I drove alone in the evening darkness, my thoughts were as dreary as the weather.
Soon I'd celebrate my 35th birthday surrounded by five close girlfriends. But life had taken so much out of me lately, I thought I'd collapse on my cake when it was time to blow out the candles. My husband, burdened by our struggling finances, grew more emotionally distant by the day. Our 14-year marriage seemed ready to give way to the stress. We were in counseling, but it was exhausting. At the same time, our two elementary school age kids needed me to stay focused as their homeschooling mom.
Pulling into Peggy's driveway, I mustered up my best grin-and-fake-it face. As I walked slowly toward the front door, it suddenly burst open. Out rushed my eager friends—Peggy, Amy, Sara, Jennifer, and Terri—to pull me inside the foyer. There we lingered in a group hug for several minutes. The warmth of that embrace melted my flimsy emotional facade. Burning tears welled up in my eyes, then rolled down my cheeks. Leading me into her dining room, Peggy spoke softly, "Come in, sister-friend. Tonight we want to encourage you to press on."
I stepped back to notice they all were wearing extremely wrinkled clothing. An ironing board, loaded with homemade comfort food, served as a buffet table. A smile overtook my tears as I grasped their intent. These friends knew of my absolute disdain for pressing clothes. So they'd tailored a birthday theme to playfully convey a message I desperately needed to hear—that God's power would help me "press on."
That night, over piping-hot bowls of chili, we laughed, cried, prayed, and took pictures, even though our noses were red from crying. It was part party, therapy session, and revival meeting all rolled into one. I left that evening with the apostle Paul's exhortation newly impressed on my heart: "Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on"(). Dangling from my wrist was their birthday gift to me, a reminder of this verse—a sterling silver bracelet with a miniature iron charm.
Such is the blessing that comes from our commitment to making birthdays meaningful for each other. We've dubbed ourselves the Birthday Girls, and for more than ten years the six of us have partied with a purpose: to remind ourselves every year of life is God's gift worth celebrating. What began as a group of women just looking to add a little fun to our lives has deepened into a close-knit circle of burden-bearing sisterhood. Now I heartily encourage other women to create their own Birthday Girls (BG) group!
(Birthday) Girls Just Wanna Have FunMy BG friends and I met as young moms who kept finding ourselves at the same preschool play groups and church outings with our kids. A frequent topic of conversation was our children's birthday parties. As we shared ideas for making their celebrations fun, we lamented that our own birthdays had become at best routine, and at worst, downright depressing. We decided it was time to start channeling some creative energy into celebrating each other.
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