Count Your Blessings

As a kid, one of my favorite church hymns was “Count Your Blessings.”  We only sang hymns in worship, and this one had some pep along with a catchy phrase, “Name them one by one.”  Since that time there have been a lot of great songs of praise written to bless worshippers around the world.  I love them all!  But perhaps because I learned “Count Your Blessings” as a child, it has a simplicity that still speaks to me.  How do I count my blessings?  It’s easy.  I name them “one by one.”

Even today, when people see someone going through a horrible trial they might say, “That ought to make you count your blessings.”  I have been unable to find a Bible passage that tells us to count our blessings, although the Apostle Paul tells us to “give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).  The Psalmist writes, “I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds” (Psalm 77:12).  So it is clear we should take time to think about how God has blessed us and be thankful.

But counting our blessing “one by one”, as a concept, continues to intrigue me.  I have practiced by writing down a number of blessings in my life for devotional purposes, and shared some blessings publicly in prayer circles.  Yet, “one-by-one” suggests something perpetual; inconceivable really.  How could we possibly list all of our blessings, since the moment we write one down, ten more have taken their place?  I checked.  In the time it takes me to type the caption, “My Blessings”, my pulse beats three times.  By the time I have finished typing “every beat of my heart” it has pulsed seven more.

The lesson here is that we not only cannot out-give God, but we can’t out-count Him either.  We have forgotten and overlooked more of His blessings than we will ever count.  The best we can hope for is to take note of our greatest blessings.  But how do we determine these?