Calendar Your Blessings

Each week since the start of this year, I have been trying to find ways to use the gifts I have been given to be a blessing to others.  It hasn’t been easy though… because for starters, I’m not sure I personally have all that many gifts, and secondly, I’ve had several very stressful things to deal with the past few months.

But at the beginning of the year, when I first sat down to think about it, I realized something else as well. Trying to use my gifts to be a blessing to others is certainly a good thing, so I will keep trying to do that. But so is recognizing and appreciating the blessings I have been gifted with myself! Things like a loving wife, 4 kids, 6 grandkids, dozens of close friends and a job I truly enjoy. Those are obvious blessings that God has bestowed on my, but there are many other blessings as well. My health is excellent right now, I play on two different baseball teams so that’s really fun, I get to go golfing on a regular basis, and I even have time to work-out each week, which keeps my mind sharp and my attitude positive. Those are a lot of blessings for sure, but unfortunately, I don’t always remember to appreciate them like I should.

So with that in mind, I created what I call my “2018 Blessings Calendar”. I came up with colorful symbols to indicate some of the different blessings I receive each week and started posting them to a Calendar. A Black W is for work outs, a Blue B is for baseball, a Green G is for golf and a Red F is for family fun. It’s kind of eye-opening to stand back and look at the month of January for example and see all the blessings that I received in that one month alone. However, I also posted a purple heart  each time I made an effort to use my God given gifts to serve others. And you know what… the calendar makes it obvious that the blessings I am receiving greatly outnumber the gifts I am giving, so I better work on turning that around!

Counting our blessings is an exercise we should do on a regular basis. It will sharpen our minds and strengthen our souls. But if you think it’s easy to do when things are going well, it’s even more important to do when things are going bad. For example, my Mom has been extremely sick for months and sadly, she passed away a few days ago. My heart hurts and the loss is overwhelming at times, but when I look at that calendar, it makes me smile… and that’s a gift I definitely think my Mom would consider a blessing!

May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day.

May songbirds serenade you every step along the way.

May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that’s always blue.

And may happiness fill your heart each day and guide your whole life through.

~ Old Welsh Blessing