Living A Blessed Life

"By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires. 

In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God's promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.

The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

2 Peter 1:3-8

I had no intention to stop journaling about my blessings; honestly from the beginning I never had a time frame or number I had to reach before I was finished. You see for me this has never been about reaching an arbitrary goal or personally-assigned benchmark. I was not concerned with whether I could count 100 or 500 blessings. I did not tell myself I had to count my blessings daily for one month, six months or a year. Yes, I have celebrated and been excited when I hit various points along this path, but it has never been about that.

I wanted to change me. I was not happy with what I saw within myself. I saw attitudes and even some behaviors that disappointed me and that I knew I didn't have to accept in my life. I knew I could be more and rise above those attitudes and behaviors, and I knew it all went back to how I looked at my life. As our minister has said recently in his sermons, "Thoughts affect our attitude. Our attitude affects our behaviors and our behaviors lead to habits. So if you want to change a habit, look to your behaviors. If you need to change your behavior, take a look at your attitude and if you want to change your attitude, you must first change your thoughts." I needed to change my thoughts because I knew God had given me everything (and more) that I needed to have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness gentleness, and self-control. My thoughts were focused on the wrong things and because of that, my attitude and behaviors were wrong as well.

It took me a long time to write up my last post(s) of blessings. Not because I couldn't think of any new blessings; I did every day. Not only did I think of a new blessing but each day at some point- maybe in the shower, while cleaning, while driving or some other quiet time- I found myself mentally writing out my latest journal entry with the intent to sit down and put it "on paper" later that day. That time was very busy because of several different events in our family plus I was not always feeling stellar. Thus my physical journaling suffered, but the count and focus on all that God is and has done continued. One day I realized, I wasn't thinking of a specific new blessing, but I was living the life of one truly blessed. By no means does this mean I am perfect or that I have it all figured out. I still have moments or days where my emotions get the best of me and affect my attitude, but overall and by a huge margin, I don't just count or mentally know that I am blessed. I live in the knowledge that I am blessed and with that, I am living more in the power of my Lord Jesus Christ and the fruits of his Spirit. Suddenly, I found that I didn't need to write. This doesn't mean I won't write more, but I will not likely journal on a daily basis.

God has done more for me than I deserve and has worked wonders in me, and I am so grateful and thankful for His patience with me as I came to this realization. So as I sign off today, I will not say "God bless you" for that has and continues to happen despite you or me. Instead,

May God's blessings be abundantly clear to you and may you live your life as one who is blessed.

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth

Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside.

Great is thy faithfulness!

Great is thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning, new mercies I see.

All I have needed thy hand hath provided.

Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!