Counting or Complaining?

I woke up this morning with a song floating around in my brain.  As my eyes struggled to stay open, I could hear, "Count your blessings, name them one by one….." It was as if the Lord was singing to me this morning, and trying to help me start out my day (and my week) on the right track.  Naturally, I got to thinking about my blessings and yes, I started listing them.  Then the Lord gave me a brilliant idea!  I love brilliant ideas from the Lord - don't you?  And let's face it - counting your blessings is just another name for thankfulness, right?  So…what was my brilliant idea from the Lord?  A way to count my blessings (and the blessings of my family), teach my children thankfulness, and have a math lesson all at the same time!  The Lord is so smart and wonderful!  Yes, yes, you're already thinking, "Well, duh, Sarah - of course He is…He's God!"  But it's even more wonderful when we allow Him to exercise his smartness and wonderfulness in our lives - instead of blundering along trying to do it all alone!
Back to my God-given idea…. I have this wonderful white board hanging in my kitchen.  It gets used for all kinds of things - chore lists (ugh!), an artist's canvas (for my two budding artists), a place to write out family memory verses, a place for Hubby to illustrate a point for his institute classes, etc.  This morning, I turned it into our "Blessing Counter"!  At the top, I wrote "Count your Blessings."  Then I wrote "Sunday."  I've already written some blessings on there, and I can hardly wait for everyone else to be up and around so we can add to the list!  I had to have a place to start - that's why I chose to start with Sunday, but I'm sure we will continue it into today!  I can hardly wait to count the blessings at the end of the day and be surprised at all the Lord has done for us!  Maybe we'll even run out of room on the white board, and have to use the small, portable one also!
As I was fixing my coffee, I was mulling over this idea of literally counting my blessings.  The Lord brought to my attention how many times I start complaining about my "hardships."  Wow!  That was convicting!  I thought of how my children struggle to be cheerful and not complain about every little thing.  Next I thought about how their attitudes are merely reflections of Mommy's attitude - ouch!  Praise the Lord, He gave me the idea that will not only help my children, but help me to keep my attitude in check - especially when it comes to the dishes in the sink!
All of this led me to ask myself:  "Am I counting or complaining?"  It really wasn't hard to answer. Sometimes I count, but more often I complain.  Shame on me.  I truly want to count my blessings.  I want to be able to praise my Lord for all the wonderful things (big or small) that He has done in my life!

Prayer and Praise

The Lord has been teaching me much about praying for others....it is something I know I should be doing, but sometimes my prayers end up pretty general - you know the kind..."God, please bless So-and-So in whatever is going on in their life today."  The Lord has been showing me how important it is to pray specifically for people.  Naturally, my own family gets to be the "guinea pigs" when it comes to the Lord's lessons in my life!
The Lord has been encouraging me to be specific in my prayers.  There are certain character qualities I want to be evident in the lives of my children, but if I don't pray for those things specifically, how will they be there?  Then the thought comes to mind, that the very things I want for my children must be evident in my life first - whew!
So how exactly should I be praying for others?  Find out their needs and pray for that area exactly.  If I want to see cheerfulness in my children, I need to pray for it in their lives, then practice it in mine!  Cheerfulness is sometimes a struggle - especially when you don't feel good - it's easy to be whiny!  I have noticed that my children are a perfect reflection of me - scary, isn't it?!
I have also noticed that on the days when I go through my quiet time "with a lick and a promise" that those are the hardest days to get through!  I recently observed one of my students, and as I was thinking about it, the Lord reminded me to pray - pray for the exact areas in that student's life that need improvement - and keep on praying until the Lord answers!
In our family, we recently started putting Psalm 119:164 into practice.  "Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments."  One of my favorite movies is "Pollyanna."  I recently read the two books that the movie came from....and we laugh about Pollyanna's "everlasting gladness," when really we can take a lesson from her.  Her "Glad Game" really was just another way of looking for things to be thankful for...and when we are thankful, we are glad!
I pray that you have a wonderfully glad and thankful day today!

"The Bers" and Family Traditions

When I lived in the Philippines, I learned about "The Bers."  I always look forward to "The Bers"!  What are "The Bers"?  "The Bers" are the last four months of the year.  You know -SeptemBER, OctoBER, NovemBER, and DecemBER!!  The coming of "The Bers" means two of my favorite times of the year are close at hand - Fall and Christmas!  So now October is here, and so is my favorite time of the year!  As you can see through my windows it is still pretty gray and gloomy looking outside!  But everyone tells me it is Spring!  Since there are no fall colors here in Peru, so I decided to remedy that and put fall on my windows!  My Honey looked so pleased when I finally got all the leaves cut out and hung up on the windows.  He said, "Now it LOOKS like fall!"

The sun shone for a little while on Sunday, and then again yesterday.  It was enough sun that Martha came home sunburned!  She is a lovely shade of pink right now - what a blessing that one of her favorite colors happens to be pink!  Matt took this picture of the sun peeking through the clouds.  It was exciting to see the sun - we haven't seen it for months!  That's how our winter here in Peru is, though!  I look forward to seeing the sun again during summer!

But, back to Fall and my leaves.....my leaves have more than just a mere decorative purpose - oh, yes!  These leaves are going to play a major role in our Thanksgiving meal this year!  No, I'm not going to sneak them into the stuffing or mashed potatoes!  As I was cutting out these leaves, I got to thinking that I wanted them to be more than just a decoration - I wanted them to have a purpose.  So the Lord gave me a beautiful idea - which is going to become a family tradition!  Bro. Ross, one of our teachers in college, always used to say, "Thanksgiving must be practiced!"  So that is what we are going to do!  Every day one of us gets to take a leaf off the window, and I write on it one thing that the person who removed it is thankful for and sign his/her name.  I made a little "basket" and hung it on our bulletin board.  We are "collecting leaves" in our basket.  On Thanksgiving, we will open our "basket" and read all the things we are thankful for.  I am going to have to make more leaves to last us until Thanksgiving, but I am excited to have a new family tradition!

When "The Bers" come, I always long for fall colors, for picking apples from Hick's Orchard, and for drinking fresh apple cider with fresh apple cider donuts!  It is a great joy and comfort to look at my windows and see my little piece of Autumn!  And I have the fun of looking forward to reading over all our reasons to be Thankful on Thanksgiving Day!  I hope today will be a beautiful Autumn day for you...no matter where you live!