Count your blessings one by one

I was a little girl in a choir standing on the aged wooden boards of the stage in our village town hall, my voice calling to the heavens, singing:

Count your blessings one by one, 
When dawn appears and day has just begun,
And then you'll find this world is made of love,
If you can count your blessings from above.

Little did I know this childhood song would become the song of my life, the song of life to me 30 years later. The old vaulted beams across the ceiling resounded with the holy truth of learning thankfulness - truth that echoed off the ancient walls and lodged itself somewhere in my heart waiting to be awakened. Truth waited patiently. It waited through the turbulent confusion of my youth, the dark hours of pain, the afraid longings that things could be different. It waited.
Pain ebbs and flows and last year it was flowing hard, like a raging torrent with my husband and I clinging tight to our only sure foundation. That was when Hope found me. She found me back in the English village where I grew up, no longer the shy, unsure little girl, but now a woman with my own children, trying hard to raise these little ones in an environment of joy but struggling with joy eluding me. I had ordered a book, "One Thousand Gifts" by Ann Voskamp, to be delivered to my parents house, ready and waiting for me when we arrived. Hope was ready and waiting. She was waiting to rekindle that truth from of old, to stir in me the belief that I can live beautiful by seeing the beautiful. I finally understood the discipline of giving thanks and I ran headlong into the invitation like a starved child. I started to see beauty everywhere, all around. That which had been longing to be noticed for so long was capturing my attention and I felt so alive. I can't stop the wonderful joy of finding His love everywhere. It's for me! His love is really for me!
Every morning I count, remembering and seeing, so deeply thankful. It really is the one habit I cannot do without because it's my pathway to Him, my Joy.
The song of my childhood is the song of my life and it's changing me. 

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