Count Your Blessings

Welcome to the Neighborhood News

March 2008 New Era Magazine, pg. 20
“Behold your little ones” by Robert Barrett

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 has done.

Count Your Blessings, Hymns, no. 241

With all the busyness that goes along with our daily lives, we sometimes forget to count our blessings, or we may think we don’t have any. We should remind ourselves that we have a loving Father in Heaven that knows us better than we know ourselves, that listens to our prayers and wants to bless us with all that He has.

President Eyring has given us the following advice:

"When our children were very small, I started to write down a few things about what happened every day. I never missed a day no matter how tired I was or how early I would have to start the next day. Before I would write, I would ponder this question: “Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch us or our children or our family today?” As I would cast my mind over the day, I would see evidence of what God had done for one of us that I had not recognized in the busy moments of the day. I realized that trying to remember had allowed God to show me what He had done."

I love his insight. I’m so glad that we have General conferences where we can receive inspired revelation that can guide us through dark and perilous times.

I need to listen to President Eyring’s counsel, because it’s so easy to forget to count our blessings.

Sister Shirley Thomas, former counselor in the Relief Society general presidency mentioned that her children had a first grade teacher that knew the importance of counting. This teacher bought dresses that had as many buttons as possible, and then asked the students to count them while she was taking roll. Sister Thomas said:

"Counting blessings doesn’t have much in common with counting buttons, but it does have the same function of requiring our focus. While we count, we concentrate our attention upon the encouraging, the positive, the happy. It gets our mind away from loneliness or pain."

How do you remind yourself to count your blessings?

As always, we welcome your comments.

To view a copy of the Neighborhood News for Wednesday, 23 March, please click here.