Prayers for my birthday

"Lord, always, always, always guide me. Show me the way. Light up my birthday candles and show me the proper path to follow when my cellphone battery goes out and I find myself in darkness."  -the short, silly version

I just got this pic from Google. But count the candles, there's really 27 of them!

Today, I am celebrating my 27^th year of being born into this amazing world. I wanted to write about some 27 things that I am grateful for on my birthday, or 27 wishes or prayers.I thought about it and realized that I have more than 27 things to be thankful for (although I may come up with the 27 most important later today. *wink2x* Who knows? I might I just surprise you). I also realized that for the wishes/prayers, I actually just have a few important ones.

So, those are what I decided to share today. I will write about the important things that I am praying for as a statement of affirmation. By doing so, by sending out this statement to the reading, internet-connected universe, hopefully, the universe will help me pray, and hopefully, God will answer my prayers.

So here are my prayers that I really do hope God would answer:

• A desire to keep on growing—I hope that that this attitude that I have acquired right now, the attitude towards success and life in general will remain and stay with me no matter what. I pray that I won’t ever regress into the old me. I want to stay responsible, punctual, efficient in everything that I do.  I want to stay in love with this chosen path of teaching and writing (and painting and drawing on the side). Please grant me that, Lord.
• My teaching career—I really pray that I can finally have a stable career as a teacher, and that Lord, please assure me further, make strong my decisions, that this is really what I must do.
• My writing career—I really do pray that this onslaught of ideas, and this enthusiasm to write will not simply be just another phase in my life. I hope that God will forever keep this flame alive in me… all of course for His greater glory, that I may proclaim through the written word the wonder of His mighty love, so the song goes. J
• Being focused and fueled—Apart from teaching and writing, art (the broad thing that encompasses painting, design, etc…) is the God-given joy that I am very grateful for. I still struggle with it, just like with writing. But right now the hope that everything will start falling into places is practically sustaining me through all these doubts and hardships. I pray that the Lord will keep this hope alive.
• Loving others –I am in short supply of this. I pray that the Lord will help me love others, especially my family, my friends—the people closest to me, despite the hurts and pains that they sometimes cause me. I really pray to be more patient, understanding, and at times, tolerant of other people. I also pray that I be lovable to others as well, that I don’t become mad or pikon quick, and that I think before I speak/do something that will hurt or cause pain to others. 
•  Proclaiming His love – From this day forward, may this be the most important driving force of all my endeavors- to make sure that I proclaim God’s word, his unconditional love and his everlasting glory to everybody that I serve, be it the students that I am yet to have or my readers. I pray that He may always keep aflame in my heart the love that I have for Him, that blossomed because of His love for me.