Counting your blessings

Count all your blessings,

each and every blessed one

add them all together

and be grateful for the sum.

House to clean, floors to wash = a place to live

Laundry to wash, pile of ironing = clothes to wear

Dirty dishes = food to eat

Books around the house = have the ability to read

Shopping to do = money to use

Toilets to clean = indoor plumbing

Lots of laughter = happy healthy children

Endless questions = children wanting to learn

A bed to make = a cosy place to rest at night

Crumbs under the table = family meals

Power bills = electricity to the home

Cold water and fresh food = refrigerator 

Pay taxes =  have a job

A lawn that needs mowing =  have a garden to grow things in

Complaining about government = a free country that allows freedom of speech

Medicine in the cupboard = access to doctors, chemists when sick

Talk about God with others = freedom of religion

Going to bed tired = I am alive

There are so many things to be thankful for BUT we simply forget — we take every day things for granted and forget that for many they do not exist. 

If you have food in your fridge, clothes on your back, a roof over your head and a cosy place to sleep — you are richer than 75% of the worlds population. 

If you have money in the bank, money in your wallet and have some spare you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy. 

If you woke up this morning with more health than illness you are more blessed than the many many who did not survive this week. And if you do get sick, a doctor and hospital are with easy reach and they have all the latest medicines and technology. And your children are highly unlikely to die from preventable diseases because they have access to high quality sanitation, drinkable water, medicines.

The fact that your baby was born safely and you are alive means you have access to hospitals and good health care, many do not and mothers and babies die.  

If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the agony of imprisonment or torture or the horrible pangs of starvation — you are more fortunate than the 500 million people suffering.

If you can read and write you are more fortunate than the millions who can not. 

Look around you— you are truly blessed, far beyond what you think.

Be content with what you have, find joy in those around you, be thankful that you neighbourhood is quiet and free from danger, stop getting anxious about nothing — we are so fortunate — we are blessed. 

Count your blessings, each and every one. 

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving,
And into His courts with praise.
Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.

(Psalm 100:4)

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