Count Your Blessings

We've all heard this phrase before...Count your blessings. This past week it has been a phrase that I cannot seem to forget.  I have seen it on the bottom of a few emails over the past week and those emails have come from the Parish Director at my church.  The reasons for his emails were sad.  One of our Deacons fell and hit his head so our Parish Director wanted to email us to keep us up to date on his condition.  For days his family was with him in the hospital praying for him.  Tuesday night, I attended his funeral.  It was a beautiful mass but still very sad to think that he was living a normal life just the week before and a simple accident ended all of that.  I take comfort in the fact that he was a good man, leading a godly life.  I feel sorry for his wife who had her life forever changed in an instant.

This made me want to do just as our Parish Director recommended, to count my blessings.  I know that this may not be my normal blog so I hope you are not disappointed.

1. I am blessed with good health. Although I may be watching what I eat, not always happy with my body and working hard to exercise, I am a healthy woman and am thankful for that.  It's time that I remember how blessed I am to be so healthy and stop worrying so much about my body image.

2. I am blessed with a wonderful husband.  Bryan has loved me through every endeavor I have encountered, from teaching, to going to school, to eating healthier and making more time for exercise.  He has loved me no matter what size I have been and many times, more than I love myself.

3. I am blessed with 5 beautiful children. I live a busy life with those children and want to cherish every moment.  Yes, time to take care of myself may be hard to find in that busy life, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I need to be reminded of this when I am complaining that I don't have enough time.

4. I am blessed with a wonderful extended family from my parents to my aunts and uncles, to my cousins and in-laws.  Each one of them has their own individual and wonderful talents that make my life that much better.

5. I am blessed with a roof over my head.  No matter how tiny or how beat up my house is, there are too many people in the world who don't have a house at all.  I have it very, very good.

6. I am blessed with plenty to eat each and every day.  There are children and adults all over the world who don't know when and where they will have their next meal.  I have food in abundance, (sometimes too much in abundance).

7. I am blessed with a wonderful church community.  I love going to my church. I love seeing the people there.  I love worshiping God there.

8. I am blessed with good friends.  It doesn't matter how many friends I have, I just know that they are good ones that always have my back.

9. I am blessed with 4 loving and helpful children who love Jesus.  They want to help me with their little brother and love him with all of their hearts.

10. I am blessed with stuff.  That's the best way for me to describe it.  I have plenty of stuff around me that I could probably live without but have to make life that much more pleasurable.  Frankly, I need to learn to live with less of it.

11. I am blessed with many talents.  I am not going to list them because that would just seem, well, weird.  I know that God has given me many talents to share in this world and I am thankful for them and want to share them freely more often.

12. I am blessed with this blog.  It has served as a place where I can air my grievances, help others, keep things in perspective, keep in touch with people and now tell everyone just how blessed I am.

13. I am blessed with a great, big God who has made all of this and more possible in my life.  I cannot imagine his love for me and all His children.

I didn't realize that counting my blessings could be so hard.  I could go on and on about how blessed I am so I don't think that I can truly count my blessings because I just have too many of them to count.  Counting my blessings has truly made me realize just how good I have it and how little I have to want or complain about.

I am very blessed and will try to remember that better when writing to you and living my life in the future.

Have a blessed day,

Corinna

"O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Let Israel say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.' Let the house of Aaron say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.' Let those who fear the Lord say, 'His steadfast love endures forever.'" -Psalm 118:1-4