Count Your Blessings, Rejoice, Repeat

We all have heard of the saying, "Count your blessings, not your problems." 

How many times have we come across this? We get this reminder sometimes in passing, at other times, in great detail. I am talking about retreats and seminars, and this topic on some occasions would pop up. If we are the reading type, specifically on the subject of spirituality, chances are that we stumbled upon articles, books even, that touch on this. On Facebook, it is not uncommon to catch a post evoking us to count the blessings. 

Coincidence? No coincidences here, and I will tell you why.

It should come as no surprise that the enemy of the soul has little minions operating in full force to throw us off balance to keep our minds consumed with matters at hand that can be entirely too distracting. The danger to it, as we all know, is how it programs us into thinking there is so much to do, yet we got very little time. Our problem-solving skill gets tested. Patience wavers. We give our thanks but in passing. 

The good news is that the good Lord does things to keep our focus on Him—using every means, people included, willing to be on His payroll to guide us back to Him. One of which is to grow a sense of gratitude among His people. Hence, we see these reminders that direct us to recall the myriad ways God showed up.

I am a firm believer that when we give thanks, it does us good. Our relationship with the Father is kept in proximity. With that safe distance we have with the Father, we recognize His voice, and we can hear Him with clarity. We develop an awareness of the gifts, including those in transit that may go unrecognized, charging that to preoccupations.

God created us with utmost consideration in that our bodies can stay in homeostasis. Physiologically, when something is off-balance, our bodies would make every attempt to stabilize it. Such a brilliant design only God can do!

Gratitude does the same to our bodies. Counting blessings is practicing gratitude which has restorative properties because it calms the senses. Joy returns. We feel special knowing God has not forgotten about us. 

Bask in this: If God is busy, He has been busy blessing us.

To give thanks to God, come to think of it, is a rather fairly simple thing to do. We just do not do it enough as we ought to. For example, it seems that there are blessings left taken for granted, like breathing, for one. It is as if it is a given that we would take another breath, forgetting to realize that there are those with respiratory issues who are relying on breathing machines to manage their respiratory health. The list could go on and on, yet our attention is elsewhere. I am guilty of this myself particularly when I am in a mess.

How unfortunate that we get torn between so many things easily. How sad we are distracted so quickly by the many things competing for our attention. Of course, they are all valid or at least appear to have some validity in them, which is no wonder that at the end of the day, we lack the energy and proper time set aside to recognize each blessing. Think for a moment when a pressing need is in front of us. The struggles are constantly in our heads, right? 

Of course, we know how to give our thanks to the Father, and we have done this many times. Perhaps even more frequently than others have. The challenge lies in how often we reflect on the blessings during moments of great need when we clamor for far more attention from God.

My first-hand experience, when the thought of things beyond my control begins to inundate me, causing panic, I hate to admit it, but the “seemingly” bad times outweigh even the blessings I enjoy continuingly. Yes, including the gifts that once were overwhelming and humbling to me because it felt like I did not deserve such favors, are also put to the side—a predicament I am guilty of, more than I would like to admit.

So, now that the Advent season is here, it calls us to pause and break away from the ordinary so we are in tune with what is to come and for whom we are making all these preparations. It is an open invitation for us to make the necessary adjustments to our schedules if we have not already done so, then we approach the Baby Jesus in the crèche more meaningfully.

The Church reminds parishioners that we are not just preparing for the celebration of His birth but also for His second coming. With that said, I would like to use the pain scale at a physician's office to indicate our readiness level. So, on a scale of one to ten, where are we, readiness-wise, concerning the coming of the Messiah? 

As I write this, we are entering the third Sunday of Advent, the Gaudete Sunday, which means “Rejoice!” Writing this post creates a lump in my throat. I will try to explain it the best way I can.

I wrote an article about that one particular day filled with God’s kindness. I did it on Google docs using my phone like I often would during a long drive to drop off our younger son back to his dorm after the Thanksgiving break. We got busy days later, and not finding time to post it, I put it off. Early this week, I thought I would polish it and then post it on my blog. 

My, it was gone! I must have deleted it by accident when I switched phones. I charge that for not being techy enough. I was forced into getting a new phone, not that I needed a new one, but I had to because it does not meet the new carrier’s system requirement. We switched carriers to save on our wireless bill. Yes, even getting a new phone would still save us money. I did the math, and it was simple mathematics. Anyway, losing that article broke my heart because it turned out that it got permanently deleted. 

I questioned myself, unsure if God did not want me to proceed with my blogging, which is now a hobby. Could it be that God was telling me there was a bigger fish to fry? Was it God's way to re-channel my energies into doing something else?

Why the negativity, you might ask? Well, it is because all the other stuff on my Google docs files was there, except for that one article. 

I intended to post it because it was a day filled with God’s kindness seen in others to show that He is at work. How often do we see strangers behaving like our time matters so much to them, careful not to offend us? Rare, I would say, which is why it compelled me to share it.

Losing the article, the accompanying zest I would have when I write for my blog went along with it. I was confused. What do I do then, right? Well, I did nothing, willing to let it go and drop my blog altogether. I didn't mean to take it down for good, but I would not add more to the blog posts. 

However, a tiny voice in my head kept prodding me to write. The more I silenced it, the more it made me rather uneasy. Confusion kept rising. Not lifting a finger, I thought, was a good idea because I did not want to get ahead of God. I wanted Him to take the initiative. God knows that I want His will over mine. He will not allow confusion to linger, and it was already affecting my peace. I think that waiting on God is like laying in stillness. And in that stillness is silence. Silence is a virtue.

Why the lump in my throat, writing this yesterday, you may ask. 

Well, I got emotional as I tapped on the keyboard because that vivacity that escaped me had come back! Yesterday was the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, I perused my journal. The first thing that got my attention was this sharing on counting blessings. 

I expounded on it and decided to let it sit for a night. Not that I second-guessed myself or anything. All I know it had to wait, and now I know why it had to wait another day to get posted. 

This morning, I heard on TV a group of collegiate women discussing this data that by the year 2070, Christianity in America alone will become the minority. These young women were firm to put on the armor of God and uphold the truth about Christianity.

That got me! I felt the urge to join their cause, doing it in my capacity by way of  blogging. So I say, “Sign me up, please!”

It dawned on me that it was not that God did not want me to continue with the blog. It was the enemy that did not want me to continue blogging. The lost article speaks of the goodness of God using others. The enemy hated it.

Typing this up yesterday got me all emotional because counting the blessings paves the way to having joy in our hearts. It helps us get back on track in this season of great rejoicing. I thought the timing could not be more perfect because this is the season of hope, love, joy, and peace. I pray we all receive these gifts as we ready ourselves this coming Sunday—Gaudete Sunday, a call to rejoice! 

And today, it meant so much more to get back into sharing stories because it weakens the enemy of the soul. If there is one we should see smiling and rejoicing, it should be our Lord God. Not the enemy. It was one of my wise sisters who said this to me, by the way. Wise words, indeed!

Now, going back to this “Counting our blessing” sharing, in my humble opinion, I find this process restorative as I pointed out above. To revisit the times we received a blessing allows for joy and hope to find their way into the picture. Our trust in the Lord gets the boost it needs, so we stay with the Lord. 

Now, you may ask why I thought this practice is restorative, like in what way I see it as such.

To me, it has the power to incite a smile enough to give me the strength to get up and adjust the sails when at the time that I should be engaging in this “blessing acknowledgment” becomes an effort to make because things are not where they should be. Adjusting the sails during turbulent times is something I sometimes forget to do. 

Another way I see it restorative is when I could use a little wind behind me to propel me to take another step to finish the race, and the push this “blessing acknowledgment” practice gives comes in handy. It changes my perspective.

It is like a lifeline we could use when on the verge of losing steam, and we have yet to reach the endpoint, because we see there is full steam ahead!

Now, how far back we should go in revisiting the times we received extraordinary blessings is up to us. The idea is to count the blessings and repeat the process, as the title suggests.

Now let me share with you what I have been doing to remind myself of this practice. Every day comes with gifts, so we stay afloat. The air we breathe. The roof over our heads, food on the table, and our health—you get the idea. We need all these to function as we should.

God, in His mercy, in His choosing, and on His timetable, does more and gives beyond the essentials. Stuff that does not come along every day. And with this in mind, I thought it was a great idea to create a list of the "extraordinary blessings" and do it in a continuing fashion. I cannot seem to get any more visual than this.

If you make one for yourself, you will be surprised at the significance of the blessings you have received. God has blessed you so much more than you think. A lot of things went so well despite the many demands of the moments as you went through the seasons of life. The Lord has seen you through—repeatedly. 

To relive how blessed it made you feel when you first got the blessings is like being blessed twice. Imagine if you do this often. 

I would hate to forget those favors from God. This system I came up with is my way to "Count my blessings, not my problems." 

Advent is a time marked with great anticipation of joy. As witnesses to God's goodness, I know God will continue to bless our comings and goings. 

Merry starts today!

Now is your turn to share your stories ingrained with a heavenly touch. Shoot me a message, I’d love to hear your thoughts. 

Many blessings!