BLESSINGS

Preacher Dan’s wife, Mae, gave an humble testimony at the end of morning revival service today.  She spoke of wanting to thank the Lord for “blessings” and how the Lord has provided for her in her life and the direction that it has gone.   Her words got me to thinking about blessings. 

The Google online dictionary gives a definition of blessings as “God’s favor and protection.” 

I am constantly aware of the “obvious” blessings—salvation, family, food, house, church—you know what I mean, I am sure.  The rain we have gotten here the past three nights has been a huge natural blessing.   The ground around here was mighty thirsty. 

One of my favorite movies is “Pollyanna”.  If you haven’t seen it, you should.  It’s a great old family movie starring one of my favorite childhood actresses, Haley Mills, as the main character.  Pollyanna, an orphan with nothing, has gone to live with her rich aunt who has many “material blessings” but doesn’t recognize those other blessings that mean more.  I won’t tell you about the movie much in case you haven’t seen it, but I will say that Pollyanna, though “poor”, had a wonderful, positive, glad disposition.  She liked to play the “Glad Game”.   She would always want to find something to be glad about in every situation, even situations where glad was not even a way to describe anything remotely close to the situation.   

I’ve found that I often have to MAKE myself take that Pollyanna approach and find something to be glad about.  As I was thinking of all this while I ate my leftover lunch of dressing, cranberry sauce, and green beans, I even looked at my meal with a different eyes.  I reminded myself that I was eating dressing that was prepared from cornbread made with my special soy milk and gluten free bread.  The DELICIOUS cranberry sauce reminded me of the blessing of a new son-in-law who loves cranberry sauce as much as I do.  No one in my household ever went near cranberry sauce before and I felt alone in my love for cranberry sauce.  He and I were thrilled to discover that we both believe a poultry/dressing meal is not complete without cranberry sauce.   I found the blessing of a good lunch--even the green beans tasted better today than they did a couple of nights ago.   And yes, I’m about to scrub a tub and clean a house (Ugh)  but you know, at least I have one to scrub and clean. 

So I will challenge you as I challenge myself to be more aware of blessings that you might not normally be aware of.  Find something to be glad about in every situation.  I would imagine if you try to count blessings, you, like me, will run out of numbers.   The list goes on and on and on………and on and on and on.......

Oh, and consider renting the movie, "Pollyanna".  You’ll be GLAD you did.  J