The Thirty Nine Steps

It was my birthday yesterday and I hit 39.
Next year is the landmark birthday, one of the milestone birthdays, but this one has had a weird effect.
By the law of averages I have lived half my life or thereabouts. It seems appropriate to stop a while and take stock. At the age of 40 my dad left his job and returned to full time service for the Lord. At the age of 40 my sil left her old life and started a new one. At the age of 40 my mum was still running around with a four year old and a two year old and learned to drive.
I'm staring down the barrel of 40 and I feel strangely unsettled. No one ever mentions what it feels like to discover that you're not exactly young anymore.
After 35 "not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin" is not quite so cute. Late nights have consequences for several days after ... the bounce back is not as quick. ABC radio is your station of choice, laughlines don't disappear when you stop laughing and the grey grows exponentially.
So, what to do? Accept getting older? Fight getting older? Or embrace a new stage of life?
Embrace! Take the opportunity to prepare for the next stage.
And in 39 steps, one for each year of my life so far.
1. Serve. In GFS for now, but taking any other opportunities that might come
2. Serve by opening our home to others and sharing with family and friends, and taking the opportunity to get to know others by sharing hospitality
3. Serve by teaching and training our children for service to others
4. Learn - study the Bible; write down the questions and seek answers; memorize, memorize, memorize.
5. Turn the tv off!!
6. Cleanse, tone, moisturise
7. Exercise (have already begun on this one)
8. Eight glasses of water
9. Buy clothes from the ordinary lady section of the store, not the fat lady section...that one is going to take a long time, but I really want to do it. I have a wardrobe and drawers full of clothes I can't fit into and I want to wear them again.
There they are in black and white; the first nine of my thirty nine steps to 40.
I'll update in a month on progress towards my goals.
Oh, and a little cheering from the sidelines wouldn't go astray ;)