Count your blessings... See what God has done.

I think as a rule we, Americans, tend to see November as a month of thanks giving that culminates on Thanks Giving.  I don't know that it is the same for peoples from other lands or if it is and it is just carried out at a different time of the year.  Really that is neither here nor there as long as thanks are given some time in our lives.  I know that we should thank God daily for our lives and the blessing he has given us, but for some reason deep fall just calls to me in a more profound way.  Maybe it is the crisp air and the promise of warm fires to shelter us from the winter to comes for me.  I have been cold in my life and maybe the physical warmth sings to my heart and makes me think of the spiritual and mental warmth of my blessings.

I love the song Count Your Blessings, I think it is one of the most warming songs a Christian can sing.  It reminds us, with intent, of all the blessings that God has sent to us, it even reminds us to count the blessing when we are in the midst of our trials, a blessing in itself.  God after all is the source of all our blessings and should be given credit for all the blessings in this life that he sends us. 

I am not sure where to start counting my blessings, I am called to start with Poppie but in reality I have to start with God or nothing else really counts.  We can't really love or care about anyone in a profound way if we don't feel the joy of God first in our lives.  It took me a great part of my adult life to understand that, I don't always get to the answer the shortest or the fast route on anything in my life so why would this be an different for me.  I as a new adult and newly married woman, would question God's place in my life and I would defiantly say, How could I love God more than Poppie or my kids, it's not possible.  It took maturity, atleast for me to understand that because of God I could love Poppie and my kids so intensely, God could not be second he had to me first in my life.  So I love Poppie and Myself second to God.  Loving yourself is also with out a doubt a blessing.  God teaches us how to love others by first loving ourselves.  Watch any small child and you will see them learning to love themselves above all others, learning to love others always comes second to loving themselves, part of God's plan.  People who don't learn that lesson lead such sad existences, I am sorry for them.  My children, one and all are the third most important blessings in my life.  All my children are different form one another, in so many ways, all are gifts to me from God and each one cherished in their own way because of their vastly different relationships with me. My family in general would be my next blessing and I am actually quite sure that most people would count their blessings similarly to this point, I would say that it was pretty universal and human to do so.  I would also say that this can not be trivialized just because it would be so similar in so many peoples lives, it would have to be one of the first and foremost blessing God gives to us and why so many of us get the same blessings. God is our father and he loves us the same way we love our children, each the same but vastly different in his individual relationship with each of his children.

My blessing from there are so much a part of who I am, and I am thinking who you are, counting them gives us our differences and our personalities as individual beings.  What we cherish defines us and what we share with others tells the world about us.  So today, this month and as a way of living a more balanced and rich live start counting your blessing, count them everyday, it will surprise you what the Lord has done in your life..... tomorrow.