Happy Birthday to my Youngest

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Today is my youngest daughter's birthday. It is so hard to believe it has been 23 years since that sweet bundle was laid in my arms. She was our fourth and last child. This was my facebook post for her today. It is a little lengthy, so I understand if you must skip reading it. Twenty-three years ago, we had our last baby. As Ronnie says, she was our little caboose. She was another treasure to add to our collection of beautiful treasures. This little one was adored by her mommy and daddy and loved & protected by her older siblings. However, our love for her pales in comparison to God's love for her. Romans 8:39 "Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." So on her 23rd birthday (and every day), I pray these blessings on my daughter, my sunshine: 1. Father, I pray that Tori will see her beauty and self-worth through Your eyes. Blind her to man's opinions. Block any lies from satan from entering her mind. Help her to see that she was beautifully and uniquely crafted by You, by God Almighty, and that You never create junk. Oh God, make her see the beautiful treasure she is. Psalm 139:14 "I will praise You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made". 2. Lord, I pray that in every direction Tori turns, she sees You. Help her to physically and emotionally and spiritually experience Your love. Lord, open her eyes to your outstretched arms and run to Your embrace. Help her to see what real love looks like and to embrace the love that only You give. I Corinthians 13: 4-8 "Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever!" Romans 5:8 "But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 3. Dear Heavenly Father, help Tori to know You more. Help her to understand, embrace, and desire Your ways. Oh God, I want the best for my baby girl, and the best is YOU! Remind her that Your ways are different than man's ways, Your ways are strange to those in the world, and Your ways are incomprehensible to our finite minds. But, also, remind her that Your ways are for her good. Sometimes, "for our good" involves withholding what we think we need. Sometimes, it involves struggles and challenges. Help Tori to understand that Your "sometimes withholdings" is so we will give up running after the shallow, ungodly, and unhealthy things that satan uses to deceive us and run after all that is good and holy ( Your will and Your ways). Isaiah 55: 8-9 "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts." 4. Holy Spirit, please totally encompass Tori's mind and heart. Help her to understand Your power and protection. Help her to feel your presence as a child of God. For her birthday gifts today, please shower her with thoughts and feelings of love, value, purpose, and wisdom. Help her to see those things through Your guidance. Drown out the noise of the world. Strengthen her to ignore the mockers (even if they be friends and/or family). Ephesians 3 " 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." 5. Lastly, I pray this prayer of thanksgiving. God, thank you for blessing our home and family and the world with Victoria Ruth Knight. I sing praises to You because You gave me the privilege of being her mommy. Thank You for creating this beautiful, sardonic, loyal, bold, loveable young lady (who will always be mommy's little girl). I thank you for loving her, even more than I do and creating her with a purpose that can glorify You. An added thanks: Thank you to her siblings who still love and try to protect their baby sister. Thank you for the surprise party yall threw for her earlier this month. I can't say Happy Birthday to one without recognizing the awesomeness of the other 3 and our 3 in-law kiddos. God has so blessed this family. So Tori Knight, Happy happy birthday!!!!! My girl, you are loved. I hope you have a great day and encounter lots of Jesus moments. I want all the best for you. Your mommy and daddy still adore you and wish you a wonderful birthday. ____ _______________________________ I hope I have been a good and a godly mother. I hope that my kids know that I love them. I pray, daily, that they all experience God's love.