“Show me, Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting my life is.” (Psalm 39:4)

Birthdays are cause for great celebration, and as I get older, I’ve noticed that I reflect more on my life and where I am at any given time. Birthdays mark milestones—when we’re young, we pass from childhood to teenage years to adulthood. Milestones don’t stop there, as we celebrate our entry into a new decade at each turn—30, 40, 50, then 65, 70, and so on, if we live long enough.

I celebrated my birthday last week, and while I’ll soon close out my forties, I’m still a couple of years away from entering that fifth decade of my life. (How has time gone by so fast?) I’ve accomplished many things, but I’m now at an age where I know certain things will not happen for me.

If I focus on negative things—things I wish I would have done or said—then it’s easy to lose sight of the positive things that I have done and will continue to do moving forward. For example, I regret that I haven’t saved more money for retirement. Forget being a millionaire—I just want to live comfortably in my old age. However, one of the biggest reasons I haven’t saved more money is that for seven years, I ran my own freelance editing and writing business and barely made ends meet. I truly loved the work and refuse to regret the time I spent working at a job I felt passionate about, getting to know other writers, and helping them present their projects to the world.

Reframing regrets lets me move forward. As far as saving money, well, I now have an office job with a retirement benefit that I take full advantage of. While I might not ever be a millionaire, it is possible that I will reach my goal of living fairly comfortably in my golden years.

The Bible says that our days are numbered (Job 14:5; Psalm 39:4; Psalm 139:16). Only God knows how long we will live (and how much money I need to save to get me through those retirement years). Psalm 90:12 is a prayer for wisdom so that we can make the most of each day: “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” I’m praying that I make the most of the time I’ve been given, for however long I have it, so that people will see Jesus through me.

Dear Jesus, thank you for another birthday and the chance to continue to follow you each day. I pray that those around me will see you in my actions toward them and in my interactions with them. Amen.