It wasn't until I looked at life with new eyes that the practice of counting my blessings really helped pull me out of a bad mood. Those "new eyes" were given to me by God (of course) but also by a friend from church. She served as a missionary in Afghanistan for several years, and the first time I met her, she really caught my attention with stories of every day life over there. She really opened my eyes to just how good I (and many of us) have it in this country, but she didn't do it by making me feel bad about myself. She just told stories and answered questions about what her average day was like. It truly was eye opening for me, and I thanked her for that experience later on. (And if she happens to be reading this now, I'll thank her yet again!)
It wasn't until after that experience that counting my blessings has taken on new meaning. For example when times are bad, what's the cliche response of friends & family? "At least you've got your health!" To the average person, that is so stupid that most people have stopped using the expression. But think about it. Your health is EVERYTHING. If you don't have that, you are affected in a big, big way. Even though I'm frequently tired, I'm generally in decent health, and I'm totally guilty of taking that for granted. So every day, I quietly thank God for the blessing of another day...another day to spend with my loved ones, impact the world, enjoy what this country offers...but more importantly another day that is not guaranteed to me.
Thankfully I have much more than my health to be thankful for. Besides the obvious blessings (health, family, friends, etc.), I thought it might be fun (and/or funny) to list the blessings I can think of in a 5 minute period of time. Right now, it's 11:43. At 11:44, I'll start writing....GO!
- A refrigerator that is too full of food
- My new Netflix membership (FREE this month) and the ability to watch old TV shows that bring back fond memories
- Our local library which has an endless supply of books that my children love
- Our church
- My oldest daughter's ability to make me laugh
- My youngest daughter's sweet innocent face
- Watching my hubby be a darned good daddy to his girls
- The ability to pay all our bills...even now
- Our oldest vehicle that keeps running despite her age & mileage
- Our home...not a big place but a double blessing...less space to clean!
- Our neighbors
- My love of music and the ability to pass that love on to my girls
- My good genes...not very many gray hairs or wrinkles!
- My kitty cat :)
- My marriage...still going strong
- The fact that we have so much junk in this house that we made quite a bit of money selling it in a garage sale
- The ability to bless others with said stuff that didn't sell in the garage sale
- The freedom to profess and practice my faith with no fear of imprisonment, loss of income, etc.
Told you that it might be a funny list! You might read some of those and go...HUH?! No matter how difficult things might be, I cannot ignore that blessings are present all around me. And because I am believe that God is the manufacturer and distributor of blessings, then He is all around me. Even if you do not share my faith, you have to admit that line of thinking is bound to bring comfort in hard times.
I could probably create a list 20 times that long if I really concentrate. No matter how ugly or dirty or complicated my life gets, there will always be a gem to be found and treasured. Some gems are enormous; some are tiny and only important to me. But they are gems nonetheless.
Question: Do you spend more time counting your blessings or counting your deficits? Do you count your blessings and then follow it up with, "Yeah but....". Are your blessings more meaningful to you than your wants & desires? How much time do you focus on your blessings and how much time do you focus on what you don't have?
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