Count Your Many Blessings

Bilbo Baggins was a simple hobbit who wanted nothing more than to sit in front of his fire and eat his soup but life had other plans for Bilbo! It took him on a wonderful journey filled with wizards and dwarfs. His adventures weren’t always fun (or safe!) but they shaped and molded his character in ways that would never have been possible otherwise.

I believe life is like this, a series of journeys that we might not always want to take but never-the-less do. Along the way, the Lord shapes and molds us into the people He needs us to be. It’s the difficulties in life that change us more often than the simplicities. The challenge is to learn to enjoy the journey along the way, even (or maybe especially) when it’s hard. Not all our days are filled with sunshine and beautiful vistas but they all have moments of beauty and joy.

Search for these moments in your journey and you will find them. Then don’t forget to thank God for them! Being grateful for the little things in life helps make us grateful for the big things. Learning to watch for the good within the hard, difficult and bad, teaches us that there is always something positive or beautiful, if we but look for it.

I have a sign in my kitchen window that says, “Count your many blessings.” I usually see it while I am doing the dishes and it makes me smile. It reminds me to be grateful I have dirty dishes, because it means I have food to eat!

Sometimes we get so caught up in waiting for tomorrow or living in the past that we forget to enjoy today. We only get one today. Embrace the here and now and make it the best that you possibly can.

My husband and I lived in Africa for a while and this is one thing that the Africans do far, far better than we do. Some dialects don’t even have a word for ‘future’ because they are living for today. Most prayers by these beautiful people say something like, “I am grateful that my heart beats today” and it is not just a rote saying. They are truly grateful for just being alive!

They are grateful that today they aren’t hungry. Tomorrow they might be, but today they are not. I learned many lessons from these amazing people, but that is one of my most treasured. Embrace today and make the very most out of every moment.

The journey that life takes us on is part of this whole ‘earth’ experience and I am grateful every day that I am here.

Bilbo Baggins also once said, “I will not walk backward in life.”

So hike up those shorts and continue your journey but don’t forget to stop and count your many blessings along the way. Life is for enjoying, not just enduring!