Count your Blessings!

Dear Reader,

"Count your blessings! Do it now!" I remember the little magnet on my mother's refrigerator featuring a wise-looking owl, pointing his feathery wing as if he was looking directly at me. I always thought it was funny how the 'assertive' and the 'cute' balanced each other in the little creature. Aside from its humor, the magnet served its purpose - it reminded me often to count my blessings.

I need a reminder of what in my life are blessings straight from heaven. I felt convicted recently when I realized that I take for granted the gift of a car that works. God showed me that driving my car isn't a right that I am granted because I worked diligently for it. Rather it is a blessing from God who enabled me to purchase the car three years ago through my hard work. This is a different message than what we are taught by the world. In God's "upside-down Kingdom" we put the focus on God's glory and providence rather than in glorifying our own acts and deeds.

A stunning realization like the above tends to put life in perspective. James 1:17 reminds us that all good things come from above. Little things like unlimited boxes of tissues during allergy season or magnets on a refrigerator that hold reminders don't seem like big, God-type blessings. But if you believe that "every good and perfect gift is from above", we need to thank God for all our blessings, large or small.

I know this seems like basic Christianity 101. Counting blessing was taught in Sunday school, true. But I challenge you to truly meditate on God's abundant provision. What in life is a privilege from God that you could take for granted as an inherent human right?

~Sara