30: Count Your Blessings
A few weeks ago I was a guest on a local Christian radio station along with another homeschool family. The host asked me for a favorite song. I chose Count Your Blessings. Here is the first verse and the chorus:
When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,
When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,
Count your many blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
Refrain
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.
I’m not suggesting that you are in the midst of life’s billows or are discouraged thinking all is lost. But since the school year is winding down for the summer (in the USA), perhaps you may be tempted to think you did not accomplish all that you had hoped to do since you began in September.
Or it may be that life is so busy that you have not had a chance to pause and reflect on all that was accomplished in the past 9 months.
Our First Thanks Service
Over 25 years ago I was preparing to preach a sermon on being thankful. I was amazed and edified by all the scriptures that spoke about this topic. From giving thanks in all things, to 2 Timothy 3:2 where people in the last days were described as unthankful or ungrateful. I sensed the Holy Spirit welling up in my heart, and I purposed, that by God’s grace, our family was not going to be unthankful.
When the end of the week came around, we gathered for a meeting on a Friday evening and we had our first thanks service. Sandi was our official recorder and she wrote down our recollections of the previous seven days. Each of the members of our family had the opportunity to think back over the previous week of all of God’s blessings.
Thus began a habit that continues in some fashion to this present day. We now have a stack of spiral bound stenographer notepads that go back to the 80s.
Frequently we had to get out the calendar, read through hastily scribbled notes and appointments, to help us recall what we had done each day. It is amazing what can be packed into a week. But it is such a good exercise to stop and ponder, and this activity never fails to stimulate real gratefulness and thanksgiving.
Every November we each make lists for what we are thankful for, as part of celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday, recognizing that “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. James 1:17
May I encourage you to get out a notebook and go back and reminisce, with the help of your family, your journals, the kitchen calendar, and beginning in September, write down all that God has done and you have accomplished together.
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.