My 50th Birthday Reflection: Faith, Family & Gratitude

In this heartfelt 50th birthday episode of The CoCo Blend Podcast, Jamie Newton-Knight reflects on gratitude, family, faith, healing, and the journey that brought her to this milestone moment.

Jamie shares:
The unexpected beauty of her birthday celebration
Why having family together means the most to her
The impact of loss, growth, and resilience
Her gratitude for God’s grace through every season
A heartfelt prayer for her 50th year of life

This episode is a reminder to pause, reflect, and appreciate how far you’ve come.

Reflection Question: What are you most grateful for in this season of your life?

Wanna buy Jamie a coffee for her birthday?

https://buymeacoffee.com/Jamienknight 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. Today is a special one because it's my 50th birthday. Hitting this milestone has me reflecting on life's twists, growth, surprises. Listen, every year I do a seven days of gratitude. But this year I'm doing it a little bit differently, where I'm just doing this podcast episode. I didn't do seven days because I was on a cruise, had no reception. So here it is. Number one, one of my best friends and my daughter planned a birthday cruise for me, and they invited people to come. And people weren't able to come. And although I was very disappointed, God revealed to me that everybody that's supposed to be there will be there. Now, of course, I was very upset and disappointed because I wanted who I wanted to be there. It didn't work out that way. And what God showed me was you are focused on who's not coming, but you are not focused on who is coming. And so at that point, things shifted for me. I started to think about the people that were going to be there to celebrate me and celebrate with me. And so my best friend would call the countdown began like at a month ahead. So she would say, one more month, 10 more days, five more days. And as she began to get excited about it, I began to get excited about it as well because I'm like, these are the people who are there. There are people that will be there to celebrate with and celebrate you and to celebrate with you. And let's just be grateful for that. So the disappointments quickly switched to joy because I did have people around, right? And it was a beautiful time. It was the best birthday. I'm going to say by far, my 50th birthday has been my best birthday yet. And it was beautiful. It really was a beautiful time. Um, I've been on a cruise before, but this one was different. I guess to have my kids there and my best friend and her family there just made it more meaningful and more fun because we traveled before, but it was just, you know, me and my husband and our older two at that time were younger. And that was nice too, but this experience was just different. It was just different. It was really great. And for me, the best gift ever was just having people around me who loved me and who celebrated me. I can't really say that I've had that experience before. Um, I haven't experienced a weekend focused on me before, so, or to this magnitude. So this was really beautiful. It was nice, it was humbling. And number two, when I arrived to my room on the cruise ship, my two accountability partners had a cake set up for me in my room already, along with a massage gift certificate. I just want to say that my accountability partners are better than yours. I'm just saying, I'm just saying it's a fact. Number three, I started a new position today at work, and it was lovely. It was a lovely day. The staff was so friendly, everybody was so down to earth. It just feels like a space that like I'm gonna be able to adjust to very, very well. It was really chill. I like, I loved it. I enjoyed my day. And I know some people were like, why are you going to work today? It's your birthday. But it was cool. It was a good way to spend my birthday. I'm extremely grateful for my 50 years on this earth and spending it there was fine. My life has had its high highs and low lows, the lowest being my father passing, my brother passing. But each of those things shaped exactly who and how I am today. And even though those things were really hard, they shaped me. They shaped who I am. And I'm grateful. I'm grateful for my family, the joy that filled my heart from my family being together and celebrating with them. It was beautiful. Listen, family ain't perfect, but they're mine. Okay. Most importantly, I'm grateful for God's amazing grace and guidance. Listen, my faith has brought me through some challenges and it's brought me to this exact moment right here. So my reflection for you today is for you to reflect on your own milestones and what you're grateful for. Because, like I said, I do this every year. I usually do seven days leading up to my birthday, but this year I'm like, I'm gonna do it all on the 50th because why not? All right, find your posture. I'm gonna do prayer now. Father God, as I enter into my 50th year of life, I just thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for all of my lessons, whatever lessons I've learned, every victory I have, the heartbreak, the closed doors, the every moment, every single thing that brought me closer to you and to who you created me to be, I just say thank you. Thank you for carrying me through the seasons that when I was strong, and even the seasons when I could barely stand and I could, you know, I didn't even have the strength to keep going. But I say thank you. Thank you for covering my children. Thank you for covering my marriage. Thank you for covering my purpose. Thank you for covering my mind. Father God, I pray that this new chapter of my life is filled with peace and wisdom and joy and divine alignment. And let this be a season where I walk with confidence. I walk confidently. I want to love more deeply. I want to rest intentionally, and I want to become the woman that you've called me to be. Y'all heard me rest intentionally. You need to put that on your father God, teach me to cherish the moments that matter most: the laughter, the togetherness, the quiet moments with my family, the simple things, the simple blessings, all the stuff that I prayed for. Father God, protect my health, renew my strength. Keep my heart soft, keep me grateful, keep me humble. May my life continue to be a testimony of grace, of resilience, of healing, of faith. And as I step into 50, hmm. I want to walk into it with gratitude instead of fear, with joy, instead of worry. I worry a lot, with expectation for all that is still ahead because I know that you have more in store for me. Lord, I know it, I know it, I know it. Thank you. I thank you for that in advance. Father, please bless, cover, keep every single person who's listening to this podcast episode. And I ask that you bless them all in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Thank you for listening. Thank you for taking the time to listen, whether it's today or my birthday, May 7th, hey. Or if you're listening at another time, I just say thank you. Thank you for being here. I also want to say, um, I pray a little bit differently. Sometimes I'll pray with my eyes wide open because I'm thinking about what I want to say. And so as I'm like looking in all these different directions as God has given me, you know, downloads. Um, and sometimes I'll close my eyes to pray. But um, so if it looked weird to you, that's just that's just what it was today, okay? Um, but again, I'm grateful for you being here. I'm not gonna do the like, follow, share. If you want to do those things, great. Thank you so much. What I uh what I would love for you to do is put in the comments happy birthday or happy birthday, Jamie, only because I want to know that you listened. And I will definitely respond with a thank you back. No worries, no worries. Put a happy birthday in in the comments, whether this is YouTube and you're watching this video, or if you are listening on your favorite podcasting platform, come on, put a comment. If you don't want to put no comments, go put some stars as a review. Like, I love that episode. Something. Um, but I would love a happy birthday. Thank you so much in advance. Again, thank you for being here. God bless you. I love you all. I'll see you next time.