My 26th birthday MESSAGE: The unforgettable party and happiness. Watch what you missed.

4th January 2015 was my 26th birthday. I enjoyed the celebrations with my Beloved wife Amulen Winfred and great friends like Rukundo Agnes, Mateka loise, Muhawe Edson, Mwumvaneza moses, Mucyinguzi Mollen, Mbonye simeo and my fiancee’s sister Nakato. The day was beautiful. In accordance to what i promised you as the birthday message, i shared the value of birthday celebrations. This message is an extract from my book called THE 3 LOVES WE NEED. The photos included are of that day. Enjoy the message.

 “All my life, I always wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific” – Jane Wagner

“It is sad to grow old but nice to ripe” –Brigitte.

It is very unfortunate that most people do not recognize birthday celebrations as important issues in their agendas. Most of them feel like it is wastage of time, money and energy. This makes most of them regard others who observe these celebrations as proud, ‘rich people’, celebrities and take them as ones with much money to invest in this worthless activity. Unfortunately, these people who do not observe birthday celebrations are the ones who spend nights dancing around when it is the beginning of every New Year. However, very many reasons underlie behind this ignoring of birthday celebrations like ignorance, some do not know their birth date, others lack money to prepare them, but with much enthusiasm in it, I hope everyone among them can be able to commemorate it in any given simple way.

However, some people do observe these celebrations and they arrange them in different ways depending on their economic capabilities and how they value them. Today, most people observe them especially celebrities, rich men and other professional people, but the problem remains how they understand and perceive the true real meaning of these celebrations and their use to their own lives, their families, their friends, their country and importantly their God. This is the reason for my concern of it in this book. Birthday parties are one of the enjoyable moments among lovers and this is my focus in this book: To tackle all the possibilities of improving our relationships.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Birthday refers to the day someone is or was born and birthday celebrations are those celebrations intended to remember this beautiful day and date. But most people have misused these celebrations and instead of pleasing He who made them get out of their mother’s wombs on a day like that, they do a lot of funny and useless acts that really post out a confused image about what we should really and truly embark on as we host these ceremonies in our lives. Hopefully, we have digested the never forgotten chapter and these celebratio
ns are really among the happenings we are not supposed to forget. So what is or was your birthday? Think about it, it is nice to remember it for positive living.

Also, some people remember special days like when a certain great business was opened, when a group of people was freed or killed, when a certain special treaty was signed, when a country got independence and other special days that are always remembered every year. These also seem to be birthday celebrations though are totally different from the real birthday Celebrations in the ways their agendas, speeches, preparations and other characters are arranged. George Santayance said, “There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval”. This is right because these special dates force themselves into the calendar and we really cannot miss them.

Therefore, as we have seen it is important for us all to remember these days in our lives and always for positive impacts on us and the society. John Glenn discovered it and said, “For all the advances in medicines there is still no cure for the common birthday”. To be perfectly clear, when is your birthday? Get ready and save for it and host it with good thoughts before your God.

To be open, some people laugh, and smile and celebrate in their birthday parties, but they really cannot explain why a day like that makes them happy. Some say, ‘because we are satisfied’ in the same way some Christmas observers say. Others say, ‘because I am getting old’ and so many other reasons. “Most people fear to die yet it is the only gate to Heaven” a student joked, “but people are happy in their birthday parties yet it is a close approach to their final days – death”. This shows that people do not want to consider very much what will happen after death and this is where the danger lies.

This has provoked me to tackles this topic as I try to show most of us what we really have to think about, remember, consider and look at as we celebrate in these parties. That we are coming close to our death is one of the great points to consider as we celebrate these days. This makes us roll down to the different issues to be brought into focus and these turn out to be the values of birth day celebrations in our lives.

 

The first and foremost value of birthday celebrations is that we are reminded that our years are diminishing and thus frankly approaching our final days- death. We usually gather together as friends, relatives, neighbors and co-workers and celebrate, but we rarely ponder about our final days on earth. This is crucial in our lives and thus changes can be made in our lives to suit the kind of true people to approach final days. To be clear, we can repent, we can get saved, and we can start to do anything right to both our God and the people around. Thus as we host these celebrations, we should always remember that our days are diminishing and thus need to hurry up as we accomplish all our plans and fulfill our promises. Did you know that we are approaching our death as we grow old? Yes we are.  Prepare in the right way.

The other value of birth day celebrations is that we are reminded to thank God, people around and ourselves. In the speeches we make, we need not lack the words like, I thank you God, I thank you my parents and other necessary appreciations. This is because God is truly the one who makes our days and makes us truly finish years after years. Our parents are to be remembered for all they provided- that is love, care and management to raise us to who we are and the levels we hold. Friends, relatives, neighbors and all people around us are to be thanked for what they might have done for us, their advice and maybe their prayers. So why miss celebrations like these in our lives and appreciate for all these as we grow old and older.

On special days like these people are reminded to bring up their children responsibly and indeed this wakes up parents.

We cannot forget the very many gifts we receive on these special days in our lives. People bring us cars, money, flowers, jewels, clothes, nice love letters and other gifts, like, books, novels, and many others. We become rich in a day. Therefore our birthday celebrations bring us gifts and we take the chance to welcome them, appreciate them and thank those who have brought them. This promotes our friendship and our help towards one another is revised.

In the celebrations of birthday for Emp
eror of Japan on 5/12/2008, the speech was given by pansy Wong, “Consul General Okabe, and Mrs. Okabe, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is a pleasure to be here with you tonight to join the celebration of the birthday of his majesty the emperor of Japan”, he addressed. “This event is a demonstration of the close friendship between Japan and New Zealand. It is great to see so many friends from both countries here”.

This vividly shows how this birthday celebrations were used to dig out the friendship between New Zealand and Japan. Indeed, it is true we gather together and we are from different families, societies and clans. And this is the time to make friendship. Why miss out a day like this to meet your friends as they themselves befriend one another. In the speech, societies that have been separate can be brought together, family members can revise their fellowship and indeed this is the value of birthday celebrations.

“I want to elaborate on this point” pansy continued. “Because it is through our people – to – people links that most interaction between New Zealanders and Japanese takes place. While there is regular dialogue at the government – to – government and business level, there are countless exchanges every day between our tourist students, and members of local communities”. To be perfectly clear, it is our time to meet, make fun, discuss and really be friends and this has to be on our reasons’ list for celebrating.

Another value of birthday celebrations is that we are forced to look back where we have come from, what we have passed through as we importantly consider those who helped us pass the days. Abraham Lincoln was born on 12, February, 1809 and he was assassinated on 15, April, 1865. He was voted as the 16^th president of the United States of America in 1860. While a child, Lincoln said, “some day, I am going to hit it hard”. He said this when he and his friend walked past a slave auction. He indeed fought against slavery and ruled America in bad times of American civil war and thus he is a man to be remembered.

On his birthday celebrations, a man by name of Quinn said, “we were blessed by God to have Abraham Lincoln at a crucial time in our country’s history. We have to be ambassadors from the land of Lincoln to the whole world to make sure that Abraham Lincoln’s memory is always with us”.

To be clear, we can use our birthday celebrations to remember the big people in our lives and their contributions towards our living. These may be our parents, past leaders, relatives and others and this reveals how valuable these parties are. For example, remembering a day when a country got independence. There are many people to think about like, the heroes who made that, how people suffered, how it was hard and what is in place to proclaim that useful message of independence as Quinn said that we should be ambassadors of that past message. Thus, the question says, why miss out to host these valuable celebrations in your home, in your life, in your country and in an approved way by God. It is in these celebrations that important past message can be passed on to the people present. These important messages include; the gospel, country’s history, the family’s history and other important news according to you.

As I read about speech- topics help, the website- that is www. Speech –topics help. Com advises us to tell our plans, what we want to realize, what we want to change and why? This is true because it makes us focused at our goals as we double up our efforts as our days diminish. When we tell our plans, we develop strength to make them. This can be perfect if we can remember what we achieved or failed and thus new strategies can be made to meet our plans. There are many times we learn life without plans and this makes us fail in life and in our birthday celebrations, it is the time to make them or remember them if we already had them.

Clearly observing our age allows us to choose wisely the speed with which we should run things and our plans. To be perfectly open, it is nice and of great advantage to work very hard in youth age because we are energetic and very creative and we have to moderately work as we sail through our old age and this really is very much considered when the habit of celebrating our birthday and date is part of our lives, homes, societies and communities.

Many people understand what it is to be a youth and are ready to exploit it to the required limit “The really frightening thing about middle age is that you know you will grow out of it” Duns Day said. This shows how valuable our middle age is when it comes to almost all activities. However, people who know how to utilize this do not worry about getting out of it because they will have gathered enough. We thus need to ponder on this especially in our birthday celebrations and seriously discuss how to put to use the age we have attained for the benefit, of our lives, our God, our people and the environment in general. So how old are you now? How many good and nice activities best fit your age? Wake up and store for your future.

Surprisingly, most people today no longer do what their age wants them to do. They do what is contrary to what they were supposed to do as youth, parents, children, leaders, preachers and the like. To be open, old people are doing crazy like children and children are engaging themselves in activities meant for old people. This puts a shame on us, the environment and our God. But if birthday celebrations are parts of our agendas, people are sternly reminded about their age and best activities that fit these ages are revised. So why miss it?

A repenting boy in the church when asked how old he was by the preacher, he humbly and shyly replied, “I am embarrassed to air out my age because I am sure it won’t fit my acts. My actions and my age are totally different”. Are we really using any single day of our life as a gift from God and thus use it for the future glory of our lives by obeying our Lord now?

We cannot really forget the nice food, nice drinks and the music we dance to. We eat a lot, we drink a lot and dance to the music and this is pleasing to ourselves and to God and that is if well and properly carried out. Needy people can eat at parties, refugees can drink at parties and all of us can dance in parties. This entertainment is very important in our lives and thus a proof that birthday celebrations are important.

However, this rises up a problem of those who do not have these items and they ignore to celebrate yet the problem is minor. The Reason is blurred Compared to other values they miss as they dodge the celebra
tions. Remember, they can be carried out in any way and still hold the same common values.

There are many values and good reasons as to why we should host these celebrations if we do not mind, but the last of all should be God’s name to be honored. This clearly depends on how it is arranged, what have been said and done. The food you have eaten, the music you have dance to, the reasons for your celebrations and all that God likes should be the ingredients of your party.  And at the end, the nation will have recognized God’s holiness in your party. Now, guess your rewards for glorifying the name of God in your birthday celebrations. “So if you eat or if you drink, or if you do anything, do it for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Like before, the main intention of this book is work on our love and relationships for their betterment and thus we cannot leave this topic without looking at the position it holds in our love and relationship games.

Birthday celebrations mean a lot in love and relationships. As usual, the lovers get together once again, share their love, and receive the gifts happily and really the color of love is highly shown and it is really bright. I believe most people know how to use these celebrations to bring back their lost friends, their lost girlfriends and boyfriends, their lost neighbors and thus a day to make peace again. The relations are revised and fortunately love grows more than it was doing. It is not a surprise that some have wives, husbands, boyfriends and girlfriends they for the first time met in a birthday party and this proves how these celebrations can answer some of our questions in the game of love.

For example as I watched a Tanzanian movie called ‘Oprah’ a man, Dominic falls in love with a beautiful lady, Oprah and they finally get married. Their love is great, strong and exemplary to the rest. However, Dominic one day meets his old friend who they had studied together in primary school and now he feels he has to help his old friend saymoni.

Saymoni is brought home and Dominic’s wife – Oprah does not like it. Oprah hates Saymoni very much though her husband is ready to nurse him, put him in school and love him. Remember, Dominic is a business man who always has little time at home and thus no much time to share love with his wife. He becomes extremely busy that he forgets the birth date of his wife and he is away on a day of celebrations of his wife’s birth day.

However, saymoni at home wakes up early in the morning, prepares nice rose flowers and faces Oprah in the morning with a smile on his face and nice words ‘Happy birthday to you my boss’. Oprah receives the gift though with less enthusiasm.

In the days that follow, Dominic is very busy and Oprah’s thoughts are always on the boy who gave her a gift and congratulations on a special day her own husband had not considered important. And guess, she finally feels love for saymoni. She loves Saymoni very much that she tricks him and they share bed one day. After this, they both fly away from Dominic’s home and see Dominic crying heavily. Not to leave you in suspense Oprah turns back and asks for forgiveness and loves her real Dominic for the last time and she really leaves him a freed man with lessons and peace after all that happens.

I want us to see how birthday celebrations are of great value in our love and relationships and thus we really need to consider them as part of our agendas. Dominic never saw that and he missed his lover and saymoni used the chance to make love to him and her. However, this is not the right way to run things and Dominic, Oprah and saymoni are wrong in some way or the other. But, hopefully we have perceived the message about birthday celebrations in a relationship with people, our lovers and friends and with our God, do all for the glory of God.

To be open, we need to use any single chance to show love, care, and affection to our friends and our God and birthday celebrations are one of the chances.  So use this party to show love to your girlfriend, boyfriend, partner, parents, leaders, lovers and friends.

“You are young once but you can stay immature indefinitely” Ogden Nash points out. Really no wise man ever wished to be young and thus we have much to extract as we celebrate our years. Failure to put to use days like these and maximize them for our improvements really is staying immature. We should grow and as we approach the good enough years, the happier we have to be because the future is always the best. Like we have seen, our middle age is working period and thus the quote that, “youth is the best time to be rich and the best time to be poor” is right. “You know you are getting old when candles cost more than the cake”. Bob Hope meant a lot when he said so, but really as years increase, more candles are needed and with time their cost is higher tha
n that of a cake. So why are we still relaxing yet it is time to work for our future. Remember we are old. However, we need to have confidence in our age that what we are reaching for as years pass by is great compared to today (See 2 Corinth. 4:16-17).

As we close this chapter, I hope we have gathered much about our birthday celebrations and we are really ready to exploit it for our benefit. So when we see others celebrating it, no reason to get shocked. However, the deal remains to mine all these values in a special way that is appreciated by our God and may be our environment. So when is your birthday celebration? How will you celebrate it? What will you remember? And who are invited?

Invite God first and all of us are ready to clap our hands and sing ‘happy birthday to you’. Live to blow several more candles and God bless your days