A certain someone around our house celebrated a birthday today.

So we decided to crown “the queen” with cookie cake on her special day.

Words don’t really express the blessing Sunny is to the people in her life. She spent her birthday doing what she loves to do: teaching students and caring for her family. After the school day ended, she ran the kids home, turned around and took AK to swimming lessons, then went BACK to school for a middle / high school athletics meeting to fill out paperwork for the kids. Thankfully we were able to carve out some time to celebrate tonight by ordering Steak Out, showering her with gifts and cards, and treating her to one of her favorite indulgences: Great American Cookie cake!

Sunny, you’ve heard me say it hundreds of times: we don’t get to be experts very often in life. At most, we have one or two areas of true expertise. But as the world’s leading authority when it comes the character of Sunny Bybee, I have to remind you that you are a conduit of God’s profound goodness. I see it in your relationship with me, with your children, with your family and friends and students. And trust me, we’re all better for it. In case you need further proof, let me also remind you that your goodness influenced what I wrote about you on your birthday last year. And the year before that. And probably next year, too.

I’ve never known anyone who wants to do the right thing more consistently or more completely than you. Among the countless reasons I love you, it is this singularly definitive quality – your goodness – that stands out. My favorite expression in the Scriptures is a word of doxology, praising God for His goodness and His enduring love. But perhaps my affinity for these words is simply reflective of my relationship with you. For I have experienced more of God’s goodness in you than in anyone I’ve ever known; and you have loved me with an enduring love, the kind of love that is eternal in nature because it is grounded in God’s love first. You are the living exegesis of this Word to me. So tonight I give thanks to the Lord, for He is good and His love endures forever. I know this to be true because I’ve known it through you.

May this year of your life be filled with blessings in abundance, with grace beyond measure and exceeding peace. And may you encounter just a bit of the same goodness in us that we profoundly experience in you. Happy Birthday to the Queen!