Counting Our Blessings

With the stock market crashing, unemployment at an all time high, and so many depressed about tomorrow, WHAT IS IT YOU ARE THANKFUL FOR?

I find myself often humming this little hymn Count Your Blessings. Many Sundays we sang this song in worship. It is fixed in my mind. For that I am thankful. It has helped me through many difficult times.

When upon lifes billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged thinking all is lost,

Count your many blessings name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.

Count your blessings name them one by one,

Count your blessings see what God has done

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your many blessings see what God has done.

When you look at others with their land and gold,

See that Christ has promised you His wealth untold

Count your many blessings every doubt will fly

And you will be singing as the days go by.

Count your blessings name them one by one,

Count your blessings see what God has done

Count Your blessings, name them one by one,

Count your many blessing see what God has done.

So, what blessings has God provided in your life lately?

Have we taken the time to be thankful or are we full of worry?

I know that I am often full of worry and then that little song comes into my head!

See what a blessing it is!

Here is my blessing list, and the more I think about it, the longer it gets. I am so blessed!

I am thankful for my dh. He is the strong but silent type and supports me in every imaginable and Godly way possible.

I am thankful for my children. God has blessed me with three wonderful children. Do we have our moments and even sometimes days, YES!

I am thankful for Christ who died for my sins so that I can focus on heaven. I don't have to focus on all the things that I cannot do anything about, I can focus on him. I feel sometimes like the Thessalonians did, they wanted Jesus to return, and quickly.

I am thankful for the inquisitiveness to ask a lot of questions and think and reason through the answers. There are so many things that folks simply take for granted, that I, because I seem to question everything, have made different choices, and thus, I feel, our family is in a better place.

I am thankful for parents that raised me in a Godly home. It was not perfect, but what home is? They strove to be Godly examples and that is what is most important.

I am thankful for our church family. They are a Godly group of people committed to spreading the gospel, just as they did in the first century church.

I am thankful for a home just big enough for us. If my home was any bigger, it could become a distraction to keep clean. What we have is a perfect size for our family.

I am thankful for God's provision of food. While things have been difficult in this manner recently, none of us have gone hungry.

I am thankful that I live in America. While it is not perfect, I can still worship God, raise my family as my own, and live in peace. I cannot think of another country that I would want to be a citizen.

I am thankful for the ability to use my eyes. We attended a Blindness Seminar the other day and were amazed at this lady who could do everything a seeing person did, just in another way. I am truly thankful for my eyesight.

I am thankful for the ability to use my hands. My grandmother has hands that are crippled with arthritis and she can no longer use them to do the things she loves to do. I can love my children, garden, quilt, sew, cook, clean, and so many other things that I don't often think of.

As a faithful child of God, I do not need to focus on the here and now, because I know there is a place prepared for me in heaven. Jesus emphasized that over and over in His parables.

If you are not a child of God, I would encourage you to read the Safety Chain part I and part II. Part one will show you from God's Word, how to become a child of His, and part two will show you from God's Word what His Church looks like.

During difficult times, these words of Jesus have brought me so much comfort.

"Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

Matthew 6:25-26 (NKJV)

May the blessing of thankfulness fill your day, Suzie