Today is my birthday (October 21)! Some people say they hate birthdays, but I absolutely LOVE them and I always will. Why? It’s like my own personal New Year! I choose to look at it as another year of the Lord walking with me and leading me into new territory, another year of growth and comparison to no one other than my past self, and another year of greater revelation of the love of God for ME.
I can truly say that I love the Lord more than I loved Him last year. Even though last year He blessed me so much and did so much in my life, this year He did more. 🙂 This became extremely clear to me the other day when I was driving on a country road and noticed something that I hadn’t seen in well over a year. It was a place where I had cried, worshiped, and experienced deep healing from the Lord. I hadn’t been back since and had actually completely forgotten about it, but when I saw it again, so many memories flooded back to my mind that I simply had to turn around and get out of the car.
Doing so caused me to remember what God has done in my life since that moment – how He has healed my heart and truly given me beauty for ashes in every sense of the phrase. The last time I was here, I had just graduated from college and was unsure about my future. I was unsure about His plans for me, and how He was going to provide for me and connect me with new friends and the church I was officially becoming a part of. How was I going to be able to fit in and assimilate to life back in my hometown – a place I hadn’t stayed in for much time since college, and which I felt I had completely moved on from? How was I going to start over in a new place with people who didn’t know me? Was I going to be perpetually lonely? Was it going to feel like I was back in high school all over again? I was terrified, but knew I was in His will.
Looking back, I can see how He has provided for me…
He has blessed me in more ways than I can count, and I have seen His goodness everywhere I have turned gently molding, shaping, and guiding my life.
I have made the most incredible, lifelong friends through my church and through my travels.
The Lord gave me favor at church that was unexpected and almost immediate, and I now have the absolute honor of assisting leading worship at Church Eleven32’s very first satellite campus – a church that has blessed me for years that I now get to serve at and bless!
He has awakened new dreams inside of me – writing being one of them – and has enhanced and brought clarity to old dreams.
He has given me confidence in areas I didn’t even know I lacked confidence in.
He has blessed me with the ability to travel all over the world including Scotland (with layovers in Paris, Dublin, and London), New Jersey, New York, Honduras, Colorado, and Los Angeles, alone and with family and friends.
I have truly had more experiences than I knew I was capable of having in one year!
Over a year ago, the last time I was in this place, I saw the clearest lake I had ever seen. It was glistening in the sun and I was completely awestruck by the beauty of it. I prayed for clarity and felt the Lord giving me peace that He would give it. Now, looking back, I can see how that lake was a prophetic indication that He was answering that prayer, and how He is still answering it in ways in which I can’t even understand right now. I can however, see the uncertainty, confusion, and lack of clarity as a gift because it forces me to rely on Him. He is truly my God, and in Him I lack no good thing (Psalm 34:10).
So, honestly, here’s to 25 and my best birthday thus far. 🙂
“He is your praise, and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things which your eyes have seen.” – Deuteronomy 10:21
Amanda Rassamni 
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