The last time I browsed the birthday card aisles, I noticed that the children’s cards congratulate the birthday boy or girl for getting older, while those aimed at people in middle-age and beyond seemed to lament the passing of years.

I have been known to brashly declare, “Anyone can be young,” and “Getting old is a privilege,” but when I celebrated my own birthday this week I realized I was faced with a choice: I could go the greeting card route, semi-humorously groaning about growing older, or I could rejoice in being a survivor.

In the book of Psalms (90:10) we read that “the days of our lives are seventy years; and if by reason of strength they are eighty years.” Using that as a yardstick, whether by my own strength or God’s grace, I have already moved into the bonus years, or what I like to refer to as “sudden death overtime.”

I can spend my days warily watching the clock run out, or I can rejoice in the years I have lived and the many possibilities still before me.

What a delight to review God’s many blessings and realize He must still have plans for me in this life.

If you are reading this, then you, too, are a survivor and God has things for you to learn and plans for you to do. Youth is the default in life, aging is an accomplishment to be celebrated.

So teach us to number our days,

That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12 NKJV