Count Your Blessings

Earlier this week, I was having a very bad day.  I was hormonal to the point where I felt like I was about to burst into tears all day, but I had no idea why I felt so sad.  I was supposed to go see my family to celebrate my brother’s birthday with him, so he called me up to confirm where we were meeting and when.  His call couldn’t have come at a better time.  I had just gotten home from running all over town doing errands, and I was ready to head upstairs to my apartment and fall into a heap on my couch and cry.  

My brother could tell right away that I was in a horrible mood, so he asked me what was going on, and I shared what was on my heart.  One of the more practical things that I mentioned was that I work long hours and I don’t have much time to sleep in between shifts.  When I come home, I am so very tired, but I don’t have a bed to sleep in.  I sleep on my couch, and have been doing so for the last 5 months.  Needless to say, my body is often in a lot of pain due to not having proper support for my back in the few hours a night I actually get to sleep.  

This is when I was really ready to burst into tears.  I was tired, hormonal, sad, overwhelmed, worried and just plain old worn out.  Then he said something that got my attention.  He asked “Have you thanked God for your couch?”  He was completely serious, and right away I had an attitude check.  Even though I had reason to complain, I still needed to put things in perspective and realize how much worse my situation could be.  I could have no bed AND no couch, but God has blessed me with a couch to sleep on at night.  This is more than many people in the world have.  I have a roof over my head, and I have food in my cupboard, even if it is just canned food and pasta.  

Now that a few days have gone by, my hormones have calmed down, and I have had some time to think, I have realized how very blessed I am.  I just started thinking of a song that my friend’s mom used to sing all the time.  It is a little bit repetitive, but it does a good job of getting the point across.  Here are the words:

"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."

I was challenged by this idea.  How often do I actually stop and list all of the blessings the God has bestowed on me?  Even if you do not believe in God, I challenge you to look at your life, your world, and start counting the things with which you have been blessed.  It really helps to put things into perspective when we feel like the world is falling apart all around us.

Thanks for "listening."