January is almost over and if statistics are correct, almost everyone who made a New Year’s resolution has already broken it. 25% of us broke them even before the first week ended. Good thing they aren’t binding contracts!
As there are still 48 weeks left in the year, why don’t we take a different approach to making improvements? What if we simply determined to count our blessings? If that phrase conjures pictures of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney in a Vermont inn close to a beautiful fireplace, then you’re probably familiar with White Christmas and the Irving Berlin song Count Your Blessings. Maybe you can even sing parts-or all-of it. But, are you doing it? Counting your blessings I mean, not singing the song!
To count your blessings you don’t have to join a gym, quit eating carbs, learn to be on time, swear less, drink more water, drive slower, spend less time on your devices, curb your spending, eat out less often, quit yelling or give up TV. You can count your blessings without promising to do anything differently all year long. All you have to do is start.
Almost every day there is something to be grateful for. Some days you may have to look a little harder than others and sometimes the blessings are disguised because we are programed to think of them as ‘normal’. Not everyone is sleeping in a house tonight. Not everyone has the opportunity to walk to a refrigerator or pantry any time they want. Not everyone has a job to go to-not even one they thoroughly dislike. Those ‘normal’ things are blessings.
There are blessings around us daily; train yourself to be aware of them. Intentionally look for the good instead of the bad. Allow the positive to become a greater influence than the negative. A lower electric bill than you expected, sunshine breaking through a cloudy day, a neighbor lending a helping hand just when you need it, a short line at the grocery, a pat on the back for a job well done….there are any number of things that happen around us all day that, when focused on, can help us become more positive, more peaceful, more loving. Some people keep a journal and write one good thing about every day. Others write their blessings on slips of paper then place them in a jar and watch it get fuller as at the year goes on. Keeping a record of your blessings can help on those days when it seems like everything is going wrong; just pull out the journal or read the papers and let them encourage you.
You may not have to change to begin counting your blessings, but counting your blessings will change you!
I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord,
the deeds for which he is to be praised,
according to all the Lord has done for us….
Isaiah 63:7
JEV 