I turned 30 on Monday.  It wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. In fact, it wasn’t bad at all. Thanks to my wonderful family and friends, I celebrated all weekend and felt loved and richly blessed.

Still, there is something bittersweet about a new season, a new era.  My twenties were nothing as I’d hoped or imagined.  Some of my deepest longings are still unfulfilled.  Yet God is faithful.  While these past ten years did not go the way I planned, it hasn’t been all bad.  I have strong relationships with my now adult siblings, a great job, a wonderful church family, and more blessings than I can count.

God’s goodness will continue through the next ten years. I have dreams of what they will bring, and at this moment, I will be devastated if these dreams are still just dreams at 40. But even if He does not….He is still good.  I will praise Him.

On the morning of my birthday I looked through Scripture to find His promises for my thirties.  Not promises of health and wealth, not even happiness or family.

These are the promises to which I will cling:

• He who began a good work in me will carry it to completion (Philippians 1:6)
• I have a beautiful inheritance (Psalm 16:6)
• He will make known to me the path of life (Psalm 16:11)
• No good thing will He withhold (Psalm 84:11)
• He will give me songs in the night (Job 35:10)
• I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalm 27:13)