Today is Patricia’s birthday!!  Horns blare, confetti flies… 

So today is the day we get to celebrate Patricia and what an amazing person she is.  (It is also the day I get to hijack her blog.)  We have a Jones family tradition that on each of our birthdays, we take time as a family to share what we love and appreciate about that person.

It has been fun over the years to share this tradition with friends and family as they have to come to birthday parties.  And so today, I felt like I should share it with you and invite you all to join in the fun.  If you have any words of encouragement for Patricia please join the party and shoot her a comment.

Now I get to go first.

Patricia, I know my parents prayed for the perfect woman for me to marry and God definitely answered that prayer.  This morning it dawned on me (I’m a little slow) that since you are a couple years older than me, God knew you would be the perfect woman for me even before anyone on this planet knew I would ever exist.  I suck at writing, so I don’t know that I can do this thought justice, but this has really overwhelmed me today as I have pondered it.  I was thanking God for what a perfect wife you were for me and it dawned on me that He loved me more than I could even conceive.  He was loving me, by making you, even before I existed.  Does that make sense?  It has brought tears to my eyes several times today realizing how much God loves me through you. 

That was a lot sappier than the usual birthday appreciation, so let me add that I love who I am around you.  You have helped me to be so much more balanced in my life.  You remind me how much I need to be patient with people, that my role in people’s lives is not to change people but just to love people.  You help me to relax and look for the fun in life instead of all the things that need to be done.  Bottom line, I want to be more like you when I grow up.  I love you.

Stephen