I love being an aunt more than anything - no really.

This weekend we will celebrate our nephew's fifth birthday. {Don't ask me how it's possible. Just don't}

Five years ago, I became an aunt for the very first time.

Honestly, I love being an aunt more than anything. I love my job. I love being a health coach. I have awesome friends, and I love being with them. I love our church, I love being part of the body of Christ. My sister, my best friend, I could spend days with her on end and love it. I love cooking for people. I love making people laugh.

But I love being an aunt. The only thing I may love more is being married to my husband. But as I told him when we met, I was an aunt first, and it's hard to let go of your first love. {This is a joke - how my nephew had my heart and Robert had to be second. Anyone who knows us knows that my husband is always my first priority, I'm the luckiest to have him, and I love him more than anything}

Everything about my nephew and niece just... just... fills my heart. Even when they drive me crazy. Even when they scream so loud that I think it caused hearing damage. Even when my nephew threw up in my house, or my niece screamed at the sight of me because she wants Robert, not me. I could not love it more.

I gave up trying to rotate this adorable photo
Becoming an aunt changed everything for me -- it was the first real thing in my life that made me think, "I've got to get my act together and be responsible." It was the first thing that took away my need to be selfish {don't worry, I'm still selfish}, that turned my priorities upside down, that bonded me closer to those around me in a way I could never imagine.

 Becoming an aunt was a huge act of sanctification in my life.

And so as I go to celebrate our nephew's fifth birthday, I am thankful. I am thankful God chose to use Abram's being knit together to knit together some redemption in me. I am thankful that I was inspired to be a better person. I am thankful our God uses the everyday things - your sister having a baby - to change our hearts and to make us reflect Him all the better.

I am thankful for the way my niece looks up at me when I grab my keys and says, "But I want to stay with you!" I am thankful for the way my nephew crawls into my lap and puts his face very close to mine to tell me what he's most excited about.

Happy birthday to our laser-loving, scheming, negotiating, light bulb-breaking, joke-telling, convinced-he-needs-a-gold-platted-grappling-hook-more-than-anything-for-his-birthday nephew.




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