Count Your Blessings Part 2

This morning, I was able to reflect on the 100+ blessings I documented in my notebook throughout the week. On Sundays, I love to wake up early before church and slowly wake my body up with some delicious food and a cup of joe before getting ready to leave for the service. I took my “Sunday morning time” to reflect on my blessings and here’s what I found:

The first thing that came to mind when reflecting was how easy it was to notice 100 blessings throughout a 7 day period. What that tells me is that I am BEYOND blessed. This morning in my young marrieds group, we discussed how the blessings we noted connected to the topic of our book we read this past week, which was “our God is trustworthy”. What the effortlessness of writing down 100 blessings tells me is that God IS trustworthy because he takes care of all my needs! If I can rattle off blessings on blessings than I must be well taken care of, right? I don’t need to worry. Even if hardships come my way I know I can trust God because he is in control and already knows the future outcome. He will take care of me like He always has.

Furthermore, this exercise helped me to dwell on the positive rather than the negative, which for me does not always come easily or naturally. I find myself focusing on the troubles in life, whether big or small, because to be honest its so much easier!! For example, if I’m in a bad mood and I’m stuck in traffic on the way to work, the first thing I’m going to do is complain about the traffic I’m stuck in rather than praise God for the blessing of a reliable and toasty warm vehicle. I don’t even have to think to make that choice, it just happens! And that’s the sad part. My mind, and many other people can relate, has become programmed to find the negative in a situation, and we do it without even thinking twice. Many of us have more blessings than we know what to do with and the statement “1st world problems” couldn’t be more true at times.

Something else I found a little embarrassing when re-reading over my blessings list is that a decent amount of what I listed are material things. It made me realize how much I love and focus on all the little things in life that make me comfortable or temporarily happy. There’s nothing wrong with being thankful for the comforts of this world but is my love for those things enough to hold me back from going where the Lord calls and getting out of my comfort zone? I hope not… but it was eye opening to see what my mind focuses on and helped me to remember to focus less on materials things and more on people, relationships, and serving the Lord.

I encourage you to try writing down all the blessings that come to mind throughout the course of this next week. At the end of the week, reflect on your list and ask yourself, “What do my blessings tell me? Was my week better as a result of focusing on my blessings? Is my perspective changed?

One wife in my small group this morning shared how a friend of hers doesn’t have the ability to taste at all. Something so simple that I never think twice about, yet once that sense is gone it becomes SO important (at least to me because hello I love food). I know this because when I had a severe cold last year while student teaching I couldn’t taste AT ALL. This was the only time in my whole life I haven’t been able to taste whatsoever. I literally poured hot sauce on a big spoon and sipped it in hopes of tasting something… nothin. I was SO DESPERATE to taste again that I did something as ridiculous as attempting to drink hot sauce. It’s funny how sometimes you don’t realize what you take for granted until its gone. Talk about change of perspective.

Alright, without further ado I will share my list of 100 blessings 🙂

1. The luxury of a delicious, warm, healthy, nutritious breakfast
2. A quiet, calm morning before the busy day begins
3. Watching the sun rise and shine so beautifully in the morning sky as the world slowly awakens
4. A shelter to keep me safe and warm from the bone chilling cold
5. God’s everlasting, unchanging, and unconditional love
6. My wonderful, hard-working, loving husband
7. A job
8. Being able to have an impact on young people through my daily work
9. A loving and supportive family who has taught me what it looks like to love and serve the Lord
10. The smiles on my students faces as they greet me in the morning
11. The way a student’s face lights up when they understand something for the first time
12. Sunshine
13. Birds waking me up with their cheerful melody after long quiet months without
14. Mod Pizza 🙂
15. A sharp brain
16. My husband scoring well on his firefighter tests
17. My husband’s never complaining attitude about his busy work schedule
18. A reliable car
19. Having the ability to use my gifts and talents in a job that I love
20. The relaxing, calming, soothing feeling of hot tea running down your throat when sick
21. colors
22. fresh clean water
23. hiking
24. the beautiful outdoors
25. endorphins
26. a healthy body that is strong and able to do so many things
27. freedom
28. two legs that can run for miles
29. warm fuzzy blankets
30. first thing in the morning coffee and a big refreshing glass of water
31. Freedom to talk about my love for God without fearing for my life
32. having a husband who lets me decorate our apartment in a way that I find cheerful and happy to me
33. All the bright colors and wonderful smells of flowers. I LOVE God’s creativity!
34. Spring and the new life that it brings
35. melting snow 😉
36. hugs from Luke
37. deep, belly aching laughter
38. weekends/a time to rest
39. A time to work hard
40. the hilarious things kids say
41. A million hugs from my kindergarteners throughout the day and their never ending affection (truly I can’t get them to stay in line in the hall without coming out of the line to hug me and tell me they love me)
42. outdoor recess aka wearing out the children
43. sleep
44. kodiak flapjacks for breakfast
45. The sweet old lady at the store who struck up a conversation with me (and about 3 others after me) in the produce section and absolutely brightened my day
46. smiling people
47. All the delicious fruits
48. Having a family who deeply loves you
49. DOGS!!!!
50. comfy clothing
51. frozen banana, peanut butter, and cocoa powder blended up to make “nice cream”
52. friendship
53. having more food than I need and a variety of food to choose from
54. prayer/being able to talk directly to God
55. worship music
56. 4th graders and their fun wit
57. a clean and organized classroom
58. hitting the green lights on the way to work
59. a hot shower
60. mint tea
61. a new potted orchid to brighten up our home
62. owning a warm jacket in the freezing cold winter
63. constant support from my family
64. texts from Luke that brighten my day
65. comfy teacher dresses/not having to wear business-y clothing
66. having access to all the clean water I could ever drink and not having to walk miles with a jug to get it
67. CHRISTMAS!!!
68. halo top ice cream
69. swimming in a fresh cool lake on a hot summer day
70. a horse’s velvety nose
71. God giving me my amazing husband and the fact that he chose to marry me
72. answered prayers
73. tropical places
74. palm trees
75. students who are respectful and listen to what you ask them to do
76. silence after a long day of teaching
77. the smell of a fragrant candle burning
78. delicious hot dinner
79. that amazing feeling after accomplishing something difficult
80. healthy and nutritious food
81. my sight to see BEAUTY
82. Fridays!
83. sleeping in
84. comfortable shoes to walk in everyday
85. a toothbrush and toothpaste
86. fellowship with a community of people who support you and care about you
87. worshipping with a room full of 1,000 believers
88. having the ability to write freely
89. being able to read
90. receiving an education as a woman
91. earning a bachelor’s degree
92. technology
93. the generosity of others
94. christian leaders who lead by example
95. The smell of Jasmine flowers
96. smells bringing back sweet memories
97. music
98. riding a bike and feeling the warm breeze on a spring or summer day
99. acoustic guitar paired with someone who has an amazing ability to sing
100. photography
101. memories
102. Belgian waffles with strawberries and whip cream
103. art that is meaningful to a person
104. heat and air conditioning
105. airplanes
106. boats

And that’s as far as my list goes… for now 🙂 I’m going to keep my list going, and use it as a reminder to thank Jesus daily for my bountiful blessings. I encourage you to do the same! Have a wonderful week and remember YOU ARE BLESSED 🙂