The older I get, the more I’m grateful for the family God has given me. For my 31st birthday, I want to tell them how proud I am of them and how much I love them. It seems cliché to say this, but I don’t tell them enough. [Warning, this post might seem a bit corny and sappy. Though with age, I don’t mind as much] So here are 31 reasons I’m proud of my family.
1) Olive, I’m proud of how you keep your eyes on Jesus. How you spend time with Him and allow Him to transform you.
2) Alena, I’m proud of how you bring joy to those around you, just by being yourself. You eat, sleep, yawn, coo, sneeze, hiccup, poo, pee, wave your arms, make faces, smile, kick, fuss, cry, yell, stick out your tongue, smack your lips, pout, and do all those things that babies do. You are wonderful.
3) Dad, I’m proud of how you serve grandpa and grandma with patience and kindness in their old age. You have taken initiative and leadership to work with your siblings in finding the best care for your parents.
4) Mom, I’m proud of you for taking the initiative all these years to keep in touch with your children, faithfully calling every single week, asking us questions to see how we’re doing, listening to us, and building great relationships with us and our spouses.
5) Dan, I’m proud of how generous you are to your family and your friends. You give extravagantly, despite how much money you are making, and we are all blessed by you.
6) Tiff, I’m proud of how you are adventurous and have taken risks in your life. You moved to China on your own to teach and serve children. You took a challenging job at Union Gospel Mission to serve underprivileged children.
7) Simon, I’m proud of you for being genuine and open with everyone you meet. You are unguarded and vulnerable with your life, and it attracts people to you.
8/ Dad-in-law, I’m proud of you for taking leadership in building your family. You’ve taken initiative to work through conflict and serve every person in the family with humility and grace.
9) Mom-in-law, I’m proud of you for how well you take care of your family. You took care of your husband when he was sick and you flew to Vancouver to care for me and Olive when we had Alena, cooking us nutritious and delicious food.
10) Olive, I’m proud of how much you’ve grown in maturity and wisdom over the last few years. Through your studies at the Center for Spiritual Formation and your reading, you are discovering more about yourself, your gifts, how to bless others, and God’s great love for you. You are different from the woman I first married, and I’m extremely proud of that.
11) Dad, I’m proud of how you learned a new language in your 40s so that you could serve the people in China by helping them discover God.
12) Mom, I’m proud of how you took a big risk in your career in your mid-life so that you could pursue your passion. Your Masters degree in counseling has equipped you to bless many people – not only your clients, but your family as well. Many of my friends tell me they enjoy talking to you because you listen, you affirm, and you give good counsel.
13) Dan, I’m proud of you for dating a great girl in Melissa, that you both have built a strong, meaningful, and fun relationship in spite of the distance that separates you.
14) Tiff, I’m proud of you for using your gifts to care for your family. Your considerateness, creativity, and humour are a blessing to all of us.
15) Simon, I’m proud of how well you serve others. You have served me and Olive by always taking out our garbage, washing our dishes whenever you are over, and feeding, changing, burping, and bathing Alena.
16) Dad-in-law, I’m proud of you for being an encouragement to those around you. Through your business and being on the board of Showers of Blessing, you have helped those around you grow as leaders and think positively.
17) Mom-in-law, I’m proud of you for going back to school a few years ago and excelling in your schoolwork. You have learned skills about health and nutrition that have helped and will help many people.
18) Olive, I’m proud of you for taking care of our family well. You cook healthy and nutritious food for us. And your cooking is getting better and better. I love your homecooked meals. Who knows, maybe one of these days you will fatten me up ;)
19) Olive, I’m proud of you for serving and loving me well. You listen and affirm me. You encourage and support me to pursue my dreams. You journey and wait with me when I am down and when I struggle with life. You are my place of rest. You pray for me. You sacrifice your needs to give me what I need, like opening up our home to host people, knowing that I love to be around people, even though it tires you out.
20) Dad, I’m proud of how you sacrifice your time and energy to help and serve people. I remember how in high school you would wake up early to cook us breakfast and even drive us to school when we were late.
21) Mom, I’m proud of you for raising three great kids.
22) Dan, I’m proud of you for the pursuing excellence in whatever you did, whether it was school, music, sports, or work. Your talent and hard work ethic will lead you to more success in the future.
23) Tiff, I’m proud of you for having a big heart for people. Your care and concern for your family, friends, colleagues, and even strangers have been an example and inspiration for me.
24) Simon, I’m proud of you for your willingness and eagerness to learn from others. You ask good questions and are genuinely interested in the experiences of others.
25) Dad-in-law, I’m proud of you for taking risks in your career and starting new businesses. You’ve learned much along the way and are a great mentor to myself and others.
26) Mom-in-law, I’m proud of you for giving up your career to take care of Olive. You have raised her well.
27) Olive, I’m proud of how great a mother you are becoming to Alena. You’ve taken care of your body during pregnancy, so that Alena would be healthy. You are patient and kind with her, even when she cries and screams. You wash and clean and change diapers and make sure Alena has everything that she needs. You are a great mom. I’m proud to parent Alena with you.
28) Olive, I’m proud of your heart for those in need. You continually challenge me to open my heart to those people.
29) Olive, I’m proud of you for your extravagant generosity. You love giving away our money to charities and people, and it challenges me to be more generous as well (and make more money to feed your generosity).
30) Olive, I’m proud of how talented you are. You are an amazing artist, singer, and dancer. You are an excellent cook. You are a superb writer. You are a good thinker. And you are simply beautiful. I’m proud to be your husband and best friend.
31) Family, I’m proud of you for being excellent grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles, and aunt to Alena. She is so blessed to be born into a family that loves and adores her.
And there’s much much more I am proud of my family for. I pray for many more opportunities to communicate this to them.
Why are you proud of your family? Consider writing or telling them the reasons you are proud of them this week.