90 Years of God’s Faithfulness

My blog is late this week for a very good reason; we were out of town celebrating my Mother's 90^th birthday.

My sister, Jeanita, and I love Mother and cherish our time here on earth with her, so we wanted to give her a really nice gift for her 90^th birthday. The only thing she asked was to be with her family to celebrate it. So we decided to make it a very special occasion.

We are blessed that Mother is physically and mentally healthy, which makes traveling possible even at age 90. Since Mother's home for many years was the town where my sister still lives, we decided to give the party in DeKalb, Texas instead of New Orleans where she now lives.

Once we began planning, we had volunteers and ideas coming from everywhere. My daughter Julie found a memory tree and suggested that we give one to Mother for the family gift. You can see the tree holding miniature photo frames in the picture. My daughter Melana took care of the cake and the publicity. She also suggested that we make bookmarks for mementos to give our guests. Since my good friend Ve is awesome at making cards and bookmarks, she made them for us. She also came up with the theme for the party: Celebrating 90 Years of God's Faithfulness.

Jeanita and my brother-in-law, Larry, rented the hall and designed the layout and decorating scheme. Another friend and adopted sister, Judy, traveled with Mother and me. She also suggested some of the final decorations and helped with the clean-up. I designed ten posters, one for each decade of Mother's life (plus an extra one). Mother and I found photos from every decade to put on the posters. I also included newsworthy highlights for each decade to bring context to the pictures. Mother and Jeanita made almost 400 cookies.

At the party, friends and family members took videos and snapped photos. Several grandchildren kept the cake, cookies, and punch flowing. Four of Mother's great grandchildren also worked to make our guests feel welcome. Over 50 people celebrated with us.

Before Larry blessed the festivities with prayer, he read a tribute to Mother that another friend and our Bible study leader, Anna, had written. Anna captured Mother's life so beautifully that we wanted to start the celebration by sharing it with our guests. Her tribute is written here.

"Dearest Muriel,
Happy 90^th birthday!!! What a blessing it has been to me to get to know you. I admire your steadfast devotion to our Lord and God and I admire that even though you have lived 90 years, you are still willing to be obedient to what God calls you to do and to continue to change under His loving hand. You have laid down your life over and over again and the result has been that you are such a wonderful example of a woman of God and you are still bearing fruit.

"This scripture has your name written next to it: Psalm 92:12–15: "The righteous will flourish like a palm tree and they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age; they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming 'The Lord is upright. He is my Rock and there is no wickedness in Him.'

"I love you, Muriel, and I appreciate your witness. Anna"

No matter how long I live, I desire to have that testimony, too. May God grant a green and fruit bearing old age to us all.