By Rosie Moore

“When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,

Count your blessings, name them one by one,

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done!”

I know, it’s hard to remember our blessings in these perilous times, even stop to count them, but it can be, and should be, done.

Just do it. Think of the blessing of sunny weather, blue skies, gorgeous flowers, beautiful green trees, also rainy days are a blessing. Are you blessed by a roof over your head, food on the table, generous friends and neighbors–what a blessing they are? Yes, there are people who don’t have these blessings, but God is watching over them also. Rest assured; He has not forgotten about them.

The lovely hymn was written by Johnson Oatman, a hymn writer, who was born in 1856 and was accredited with writing over 5,000 hymns, and wrote this particular one in 1896. This hymn was a popular reminder of the verse in Ephesians 1: 3…”Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ”.

In the movie “White Christmas”, remember Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney singing another version of this hymn, “Count Your Blessings, not sheep, when you go to sleep”?

Truck drivers, nurses, policemen, so many other helpers, I can’t mention them all, are our blessings in this time of unpleasantness. What would life be without them? It’s hard to imagine.

Life is hard just now but, remember,

“Are you ever burdened with a load of care?

Does the cross seem heavy you are called to bear?

Count your many blessings, the doubt will fly,

And you will be singing as the days go by.

Thought for the day: Two kinds of people on earth can be seen, the people who lift and the people who lean.   Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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