Counting Blessings instead of Burdens

Do you every feel weighed down with so many burdens that you can barely stand?  I know that there have been several times in the last few years where I have become so weary with burdens that I didn't even want to get out of bed.  I've even wondered if life was worth living at all.  It is at times like these that I realize I am counting my burdens instead of counting my blessings.

After my husband had a near fatal heart attack 4 years ago, I was pretty weighed down with troubles.  I was not only taking care of a recovering husband, but five children as well, and life was pretty darn tough.  All those around me were appropriately concerned for my husband's health, while I sunk lower and lower under the burden of it all.  One day a friend of mine asked me how I was doing.  I began to tell her of my husband's progress, but she stopped me and said, "Jenn, how are you holding up?"  I was so touched by her concern for me that I almost burst into tears.  I was even more touched when a few days later she came by with a $5 dollar gift card to Bath and Body Works and a quart of my favorite ice cream, which she'd gone to the trouble to discover was peppermint.  This time I shed tears of gratitude for her concern for just little old me.

This simple act of kindness made all of the difference!  In fact, it turned everything around.  I was finally able to see my blessings again rather than just my heavy burdens.

Thornton Wilder has said, "We can only be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

As I began to count my treasures, I found that they far outweighed my burdens.  I felt alive again.  I learned that gratitude turns what we have into more than enough to keep going.  

William Penn tells us, "The secret to happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their troubles."

I know this to be true.  Having gratitude helps us to see our lives in a wondrous way rather than just seeing the burdens in our field of view.  According to G. K. Chesterton, "I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder."  

The more blessings we count, the more we can see the hand of God in our lives and the more our burdens diminish.  May we thank Him each day for our many wondrous blessings.  For in the words of Meister Eckhart, "If the only prayer you said your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice."