Healing Through Celebration: Redeeming Broken Birthdays
For years, birthdays were always hard for me. I found myself feeling sad and not understanding why.
I only remember one birthday, before being taken away from my mother. I was turning 5 and daddy was home. He made sure it was special and he even got me a swing set!
I always found it strange that I didn’t remember my other birthdays.
I found out years later, while spending a rare moment with my mother, that the reason I didn’t have any memories of my special day was because she didn’t do anything for my birthday. When I asked her why, she looked right at me with a look that spoke “don’t you know?” and said, “Well Rebekah, nobody ever did anything for my birthday so why should I do anything for yours?”
It was only recently that I realized what she meant was that her birthday was the 4th of August and mine was the 7th and nobody remembered her on her special day, why should mine be any different? To this day, she never does anything for my birthday or my children’s.
It was also in my thirties that I began to realize how badly my heart needed to heal from all the trauma and neglect from my childhood. I was unloved and unwanted as a little girl and I was feeling that hurt, deep in my soul.
I went on an intentional journey to forgive people, including mama, who were meant to protect me, but instead they hurt me. It was during that time that I began to embrace my birth and God brought my heart to a place of hope and transformation through forgiveness. I began to get excited about my birthday, maybe for the first time ever!
I know there’s a lot of people out there who struggle on their birthday. I want to invite you along to celebrate my birthday over the next few weeks and I hope you’ll allow yourself, if only for a moment, to celebrate yours too.
Here are some fun and inexpensive ways to celebrate by embracing your inner child:
Blow bubbles 🫧
Dance like nobody’s watching
Order a crown from Amazon and wear it while you dance! Here’s where I found mine 👑
Eat a cupcake…but not before you blow out a candle 🧁
Enjoy a snow cone
Go on a bike ride 🚲
Swing high and then jump!
This year I’m giving my birthday to Saving Grace. I’m sure you’ve heard we purchased a farm to expand to serve even more girls! Something you may not have heard is that in taking that giant step of faith and the commitment to serve more girls, our budget doubled. YOU have shown up in that space and we’ve seen the provision of God!
🥳 If you’re already a monthly supporter, please consider sharing this with a friend and inviting them to help me get to 55 new monthly donors! 🙌🏼 I can’t do this without you! I never have. 🫶🏼
Becky Shaffer
Founder & Executive Director
Saving Grace NWA