Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God hath done;
Count your blessings, name them one by one;
Count your blessings, see what God hath done.
Hearing my husband sing that famous hymn by Johnson Oatman Jr. , I couldn’t help but smile as my heart filled up with joy while reflecting on how good God has been.
That gave me an idea; let’s count our blessings as a family! I gathered the children round our coffee table, and we embarked on a journey of gratitude. I asked them to write out what they are grateful to God for. We did this in our journals so it is preserved and not lost with the scarp paper, and so we can go back to it all through out the year whenever we feel low or need reminding of the wonderful things God has done for us. We made it a fun activity by drawing a wheel and coloring it in.
PC: Rachel Matembe
“Better to lose count while naming your blessings than to lose your blessings to count your troubles.” This quote by Maltbie D. Babcock really resonates with me. Pausing to count your blessings will help you to recognize the goodness of God in your daily life; filling your heart with gratitude and sparking contentment which according to the Bible is great gain.
1 Timothy 6:6-10 But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
It is easy to overlook the good things in our lives and focus on what we do not have. Changing our outlook on life and perspective to that of gratitude while also teaching our children to do the same will do wonders for us.
Gratitude brings us into the presence of our God. Like the Psalmist said, I will enter His gates with thanksgiving in my heart, I will enter His courts with praise.
Giving thanks holds a special place in the heart of Jesus. We see it all through the Bible, Jesus pausing at various times and on different occasions to give thanks to God the Father. Before He fed the 5,000, before He shared the Last Supper with His disciples and on other occasions, Jesus made it a point to stop and give thanks to God.
The virtue of gratitude stood out so much for Jesus and He held it in such high regard that He noticed when people did not put it into practice. It puzzled Jesus when people did not stop to give thanks to God. One clear example is found in Luke 17:15-19.
When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself to the ground at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan. Jesus spoke up, “There were ten who were healed; where are the other nine? Why is this foreigner the only one who came back to give thanks to God?” And Jesus said to him, “Get up and go; your faith has made you well.”
Teaching our children to give thanks to God is equipping them with virtue and a godly character, one that chooses gratitude over complaining. It is part of our responsibility as parents to train our children in the way that they should go, causing them to be pleasing to the Lord.
PC: Rachel Matembe
There are so many things that the Lord has done for us, so many blessings He has showered upon us and our families, none of which are to be taken for granted. From giving us life, health and a sound mind, to placing us in a loving home, that we have beds to sleep in and food to eat, that we are able to go outside peacefully and return safely, for healing, for a big new house, for friends, coffee dates and playdates…the list goes on and on.
Take time today, together with your family, to recognize the blessings in your lives and cultivate a thankful spirit that is pleasing to the Lord. Like the Psalmist said in Psalm 103:2 Bless the LORD O my soul, and do not forget all His kind deeds.
Isaiah 12:4-5 And on that day you will say, “Give thanks to the LORD, call on His Name. Make known His deeds among the peoples; make them remember that His Name is exalted.” Praise the LORD in song, for He has done glorious things; let this be known throughout the earth.
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