Counting my blessings...

I grew up in a small town south of Atlanta. My parents lived outside of town. It would be considered the country today. Lots of room between houses. Lots of open land to explore and roam around on. My brother and I had go-carts and motorcycles and ponies. We had a pool and a trampoline and lots of dogs and cats. We did not have central air when I was young; just an attic fan and screens on all the windows. We had a tire swing and a BB gun. We had a garden and lots of pecan trees. We had a tree house that my daddy built and a barn full of tractors and tools. It was a good place to grow up.


The name of our street was Campground Road named for the church campground at the end of the road. If you grew up in the south, then you know about camp meeting. One week out of the summer families gather at the camp ground to hear preaching and be with family and eat lots of good food. There are cabins with tin roofs and sawdust floors that have belonged to families for generations. There is an open air tabernacle with wooden pews in the center of the camp ground where preachers from the area churches come and share a sermon each night. There is a big cabin owned by the church for the youth groups to stay all week. I grew up going to camp meeting every year. It is a special place.


One of the best memories I have about camp meeting is the hymns we sang. The old hymns. The ones that you find yourself humming if you grew up singing them. One of my very favorites that we sang every year was about counting your blessings. "Count your blessings, name them one by one."


Life these days doesn't look like the simple perspective I had as a child. Things get a bit more complicated the older we get. Our perspective tends to change with our circumstances. We lose sight sometimes of all of our blessings. They aren't as easy to see through the demands of life. But they are there. We just have to stop and count them sometimes.


We don't stop often though, do we? Let's stop today and count our blessings. Name them one by one. Write them down. Tell them to our kids. Get them to write theirs down. When we do this, we can't help but see what God has done. In the middle of the worst of circumstances, there is always a blessing. We just have to look for it. Count it as a gift. Receive it. Cherish it.


And then... pass it on! Bless someone today out of your blessings. Tell someone what a blessing they are to you. Share what God has done for you with others. You may be the only blessing they can count today.

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.


Are you ever burdened with a load of care?
Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?
Count your many blessings, every doubt will fly,
And you will be singing as the days go by.


So, amid the conflicts, whether great or small,
Do not be discouraged, God is over all;
Count your many blessings, angels will attend,
Help and comfort give you to your journey's end.


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 many blessings, see what God hath done.