“Count your blessings, not your blastings.”
“Count your blessings, not your complaints.”
“Count your victories, not your vanity.”
“Count your graces, not your grumblings.”
“Count your highs, not your lows.”
Yeah…I know…I stretched it a little. 🙂 I’m sure I could come up with more, but…
One good way to silence the complaints and complaining that seems to fill our lives is by sitting down and recording all the good things, all the blessings that fill our lives. I know if I sat down with a pen in hand and a notebook in front of me, I could fill pages with all the blessings God has given me.
Tragically, it seems more natural for me/for you to be ungrateful, or to simply fail to even acknowledge it was from God. My tendency is to forget or fail to say thanks, which leads to…you guessed it…complaining. Talk about a vicious cycle! For me, to get into the “complaining mode” leads me to turn away from the goodness of God or to take it for granted. Ironically, focusing on the goodness of God leads me away from complaining into praising. Go figure. 🙂
Grumbling about life and life’s circumstances leads to drifting and forgetting and ingratitude. Here is a challenge for all of us: take some time today to write down blessings from God. Do what the old hymn says, “Count your many blessings, name them one by one, And it will surprise you what the Lord has done.” It will also turn our mourning into dancing.
Grumbling and complaining is also contagious! If I hang around someone who grumbles and complains, I find myself getting into that same mode. By the same token hearing others give God credit for blessings makes me realize how blessed I am! I need to choose my friends wisely.
That is a great point Pam! It totally slipped my mind as I wrote this. Thanks for adding your wisdom to the convo.
I’ve been keeping a thankfulness journal since last November, Bill. Writing things down, no matter how insignificant they may seem in the moment, has a monumental way of adding up and giving God the glory for all the good things with which He blessed us each and every day.
Blessings!
Well done Martha! I guess I should have had you write this one. 🙂 You are already on the money with my suggestion.
Absolutely great point Bill. I love that Martha has been keeping a journal, what a fantastic idea. A grateful heart is a humble heart, humble heart, is a good servant to the Lord. Father, may we always be grateful for even the smallest things, because everything we have belongs to You and comes from You. When we forget to have a thankful heart, we begin to thank we are entitled to what we have, and that path is a path of destruction. May the grace Father that You pour on us. also flows from us. 1 Timothy 1:17
It is a fantastic idea Gail! but your thoughts are also good. Let’s not forget…
The enemy likes to help us remember the stuff that gets under our skin. The situations that hurt us. The annoyances and the triggers. One way to shut that down is to do exactly what you have stated above… Stop and count our blessings. Even if you have to start small, start. I am trying to focus more on the positive and learning to let things brush off. One other reminder is that if the enemy can infiltrate my thinking, he can do the same in others. Perhaps turning what could be a negative emotion toward a person into prayer for a person and asking God to intervene… Maybe (and probably) it is me that God needs to adjust.
Your suggestion of turning a negative into a prayer point is a diamond Ryan! Great point.
i am all for what counting our blessings are all about. Things can get REALLY worse if we focus on the bad things, and doing so on a consistent basis is just free range for the enemy.
Ryan’s answer is also a good one, and even the Bible says not to worry, but to pray to the Lord. (paraphrased)
I agree Ed. Things can get bad if we focus on the bad things. The Bible says not to give the devil a foothold. That happens when we put our focus where it doesn’t belong.