I know the phrase “Count your blessings!” has been so overused these days and I’m sure you’ve heard it a million times. Usually, it’s used in the context where someone is telling you to count your blessings because you don’t seem grateful for something and the negative undertones that can come with that scenario completely skew it’s original intent.
Have You Ever Actually Tried To Count Your Blessings?
I know, it’s obviously an impossible task, but every time I hear this phrase, and I really think about it, it’s like a movie of my life flashes before my eyes and I can’t help but get emotional. If we really thought about how truly blessed we are, we probably all get a little emotional.
The fact that you’re reading this is a pretty good indication that you’re probably in a safe place with enough down time to read this in the first place and at least have access to internet. Just in that one scenario alone are a ton of blessings if you really think about it.
We Live In A Progressive Culture
Part of the never ending quest to improve our lives is the drive to always have the next best thing. When you mix that motive with a culture that is obsessed with money and wealth and keeping up with the Jones’, it creates a formula for disappoint as we constantly measure what we have against everybody else.
And it’s silly if you think about it. The things that we spend money on or get caught up in just because we see someone else with it is mind-boggling. From drinking cups to hair clips to sweats to new tech toys or cars or whatever your thing is, it’s most likely not something you can’t live without, or it may even be something that doesn’t improve your life at all. But we always HAVE to have it.
And we talk ourselves or our spouses into it, convincing them of all the practicalities of it and how much it will help with xyz aspect of our lives, but at the end of the day, it’s really all just stuff.
Satan loves to use this…
From a very early age, we learn how to compare ourselves to others, and if we don’t, everyone else will. Some of it is developmental to make sure we it are on track and growing and learning how we “should” be but it also sets us up on a course of comparison we follow our whole lives.
If Satan can keep us focused on these things instead of what we should be doing for the Kingdom, then he wins. Remember, distraction can be just as detrimental as not doing anything at all.
If We Don’t Stop And Count Our Blessings…
If we never take the opportunity to stop and count our blessings at least every once in a while, we will miss all of the blessings that God is giving us all the time. I also have to remind myself of this often. My husband and I love to do house projects and we’re usually very DIY people, but even being able to talk about improvements we want to make means that we have a house that we can make improvements to (big blessing), we have the means to pay for these improvements or have the ability to save for them (blessing), we have the skillsets to be able to do these improvements ourselves or figure it out (blessing)…do you see where I’m going with this?
So many of us walk right past tons of blessings that surround us daily and in our fallen, sinful world, the fact that we can get through one day successfully or have good days at all is a huge blessing! Imagine how different society would be if we all walked around realizing all the ways God blesses us every day. Unfortunately, most of us walk around expecting the blessing and get upset with disruptions in our blessings. It’s amazing how a tiny perspective shift can really alter your everyday thinking.
Take A Step Back
So how do we move forward in a more grateful way? Remember to take a moment and stop and count your blessings. No, I don’t mean to literally count them, but take a moment every day, if you can, to think of all the things you’re grateful for. I like to do this at night when I’m tidying up the house or before I go to bed. It’s easy to reflect back on your day and realize how truly grateful you are for all that you’ve been given. It’s also impossible to be jealous/envious/angry and thankful at the same time.
I hate it when people say that there is always someone who has it worse than you, but it is true. There is always something to be thankful for, even on our worst days. When we focus on being thankful and give God the glory He deserves for our blessings, then it keeps our focus on Him and off of us and that will help us move closer to Him anyway.
“Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness; you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God.”
2 Corinthians 9:10-12 NASB2020
