Hearing the laughter of children too long shut indoors finally set free to enjoy God's Creation. Seeing the faces of friends after having been too long shaded by time, distance, and circumstances. Feeling the Spring sun warm your bones after being perpetually chilled by the cold bite of winter.
According to a dictionary, a blessing is something which is conducive to happiness or welfare.
I think most of us would say that blessings are easy to recognize--good things in life, often unexpected, resulting in joy. Like the ones mentioned above. Those are blessings, certainly.
That is not, however, where the story ends.
I am certain we often fail to recognize the blessings in our lives, and I can think of three reasons why.
We're too caught up in what we want.
Too often, we're so caught up in what we want that we can't believe anything else could possibly make us happy. Blessings are missed because they are not what we ordered. God, I asked for sunny and 70, not cold and windy with sleet and rain. Never mind that God has blessed me with a warm house; that's not the blessing I'm looking for.
Jobs, relationships, opportunities--we want what we want. Anything other than that just isn't good enough. With a mindset like that, we're liable to miss something so much better.
We think blessings have to feel good.
From the definition above, a blessing is something which is conducive to happiness or welfare. All of us are more than willing to experience and acknowledge those blessings which bring us happiness. What about welfare? The two do not always go hand in hand, do they?
Take going to the dentist. Is such a thing conducive to our welfare? Certainly. But happiness? Not for most.
Not all blessings feel good. Just because it's uncomfortable, however, does not make it any less a blessing.
We forget that God knows more than we do.
What we think will make us happy, or what we believe is good for us is not always the case. God knows the truth. He knows us better than we know ourselves. That 40 foot sailboat may seem like a real blessing, but not if we're going to sail into a hurricane the first time we take it out.
God knows what's going to work, and what isn't. Some of the greatest blessings God gives is to withhold what we want.
Don't overlook the blessings in your life.
As with most things, we get the get the easy stuff. Those blessings that make us feel good--thank God for them. Never forget from whom all blessings flow.
Don't shortchange yourself, however, by missing out on those other blessings, when God gives you something other than what you desire, when your welfare is more important than your happiness, or when He takes away to keep you from harm.
Those are often the greatest blessings of all.
No comments:
Post a Comment