What blessings?

 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.    (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

 

I had a nice talk with my aunt on the phone yesterday. She is 100 years old! But her voice is just as clear as strong as can be. She is recovering from bronchitis and a kidney infection. Ugh! Can you imagine! But she seemed to be in good spirits.

 

She was telling me about a day when she was thinking of all the things she couldn’t do anymore. I guess when you’re 100, there’s something every day that you realize you can’t do. But she didn’t let it get her down. No! She decided to make a list of all the things she still could do. Then she could refer to that list from time to time when thoughts of her limitations got her down.

 

I like that idea. For one, going through this cancer thing has left me tired, or itchy, or always something. And it can be real easy to focus on all the things I’ve let fall behind because of these side effects. It’s one thing to count your blessings, it’s another to focus on them. She impressed “her children” - me. We talked about them. I want to write them down.

 

You don’t have to be suffering from old age or a disease to get caught up in negative thoughts. Family, church, committees – group projects … all give us opportunity to focus on the positive or the negative.

 

Maybe because of the cancer scare, I am more willing now to let smaller issues slide. Maybe I’m ready to let go and not turn molehills into mountainous problems.  Maybe being quiet and riding it out, for an hour or a night is the more gracious way to live. Maybe it shouldn’t take a cancer scare to make us live like that.

 

So count your blessings and don’t give the devil a foothold by focusing on the negative with grumbling and complaining. Count your blessings – write them down, share them with your loved ones. Let them be what’s guiding your heart.