For days my heart has been tugging at me to count my blessings again! It’s a drawing that brings joy just thinking about it. Relief, hope, love, and deep gratitude are all tied up in this aching. And I cannot let it go another day. My very being cries out to proclaim the goodness of the Lord.

I started counting my blessings in April of 2010 with Ann Voskamp’s Gratitude Community. Then the name changed to Multitude Mondays and I was still adding to my list of 1000 gifts slowly but surely. I needed to be more diligent. In August of 2013, I wrapped up my list of 100 with a post about a new season in our family life. How appropriate to choose to find blessings when the seasons of life changed and my heart grieved for the differences that lay ahead.

Offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving through trials was not new to me, although I did not practice it as often as the Lord would like to have blessed me. The first time was when my mother had life-threatening surgery and we almost lost her (read about it here). I was crying out to the Lord and struggling under the weight of fear, the unknown prospects, the distance from family, and eyes that could not see the Lord. One morning as I scrawled my fears and troubles in my journal, the Lord answered. “Give me thanks,” He said. “For what?” I  asked with a breaking heart. And then He pointed me to Psalm 50:23:

“Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me,
and to the blameless I will show my salvation.” NIV

Blessings poured out on me from that day forward despite the many setbacks in my mother’s recovery. But I could see God’s hand more clearly working in all of the circumstances surrounding this time.

I want to taste the goodness of the Lord again that comes from seeing His blessings in my everyday life. And thus I begin again–without numbers this time.

Lord, I thank you for the many ways you have blessed me this past week. My heart overflows with gratitude for both the quiet moments and the bubbling with joy ones:
♥ A Facebook chat with our Navy son who is deployed. Warmth and joy.
♥ Meeting with sisters-in-the-Lord for prayer through our Knitted Hearts group at church
♥ My first week working out at the gym. It was fun. Especially the Zumba for old ladies
♥ Connecting with new writing possibilities
♥ A cell phone with internet access. At last
♥ Oranges picked from our own tree. Juicy, sweet, dripping with gratefulness after last winter’s frost.
♥ A chance to talk on the phone with longtime friends.
♥ The joys of sharing each retired day with my hubby. Life is a joy.
♥ Planning a trip with our dear friends who went to Alaska with us two years ago. Adventure on the horizon.
♥ The son of a dear friend who has worked feverishly on a spectacular new blog design for me! Excitement.

Linking with: Winsome Wednesday