Counting our Blessings

The season of thanksgiving invites us to reflect on our many blessings—large and small. As we remember the many gifts that God has given us, we experience greater peace and joy in life. Let’s consider a few blessings that are easy to take for granted:

• Each breath that we take

• Clean water to drink (1.1 billion people lack access to safe water)

• Nutritious food to eat (2/3 of the world’s population are either starving or underfed; do we truly appreciate the farmers, truckers, clerks, and all others who make food available to us?)

• Libraries to visit and books to read (many in the world can’t read or lack access to books)

• A warm home (over 1 billion people in the world lack suitable shelter)

• Opportunities to learn and serve

• Being able to walk, talk, see, smell, and touch (My friend, Beth, taught me to be so much how precious these blessings are; cancer had destroyed a portion of her spinal column, and she endured indescribable suffering with grace and courage for 27 years.)

Melodie Beattie wrote, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.”

As a mother, nothing makes me happier than when my children express gratitude to me for things I’ve done for them. May we thank our Father for the bounties of life, for truly every good thing we enjoy is a gift from Him.


© Carol Brown