What's your age?

Hubby and I recently celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary.

The firstborn turns 11 tomorrow.

A girlfriend I had coffee with told me that I'm "still" a baby cos she's turning 50.

I boldly admitted in front of my Sunday School youth that I'm 42. The girls - including mine - audibly gasped. Not sure if it was the number or my not being coy about my age that got their attention. My point to them was that you don't have to hide your age just cos you're older.

What I also didn't say that I would like to have said, is that there are so many ways to mark the passage of time.

You can be 40 and have the healthy functionality of a 16 year-old, and vice versa.

Some teens are very mature and some grown-ups are very childish (which is different from being childlike, a quality to be desired whatever your age).

Some adults are still trapped in behavioral patterns learned in childhood that they have no awareness of or do not wish to confront. A particular remark can cause them to regress to that helpless 7 year-old from all those decades ago, paralyzed in the presence of a figure of authority, trying to please an unpleasable adult who has more power than you.

I know because I have had plenty of those moments. It's one reason why even now, I don't always feel grown up or worthy of achieving greatness.

What I have learned and am learning is that I always have a choice. There are more options than I think, because what I think depends on what I am deleting, distorting and generalizing at any given time. What I focus on is what I get. So if I want to change my results, I have to change my thinking first.

It's that simple.

Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.

Simple revelations are the beginning of great transformations.