“A good memory is one that can remember the day’s blessings and forget the day’s troubles”  Unknown

When was the last time you counted your blessings…naming then one by one?

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You welcome me as a guest, anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.  (Psa. 23:5; NLT)

Tip #3 of the 30 Happiness Tips from last Friday’s link was “Count your blessings.”  It read, “When something bad happens to you, try not to focus on it. Instead, take a minute to count your blessings. Everyone has good things in their lives, whether it is health or loved ones or whatever.”

Another great tip…for a couple of reasons.  First, when something bad happens to you, if you let your thoughts dwell on the situation and what might happen next, you are obviously nurturing a growing collection of negative thoughts.  Pretty soon you’re worrying and preparing invitations for a full-blown pity party.  Have you ever noticed that negative thoughts seem to multiply faster than rabbits?  A head full of negative thoughts will invariably cause you to feel bad, feel down, and feel sorry for yourself.  It’s a negative spiral that not only affects your mind and clouds your thinking, but also affects your emotions.

Another reason that you would be well served to begin to count your blessings, is that it allows you to begin to see the “something bad” up against the light of several “something goods.”  The more “something goods” you can stack up against the “something bad” begins to make the issue literally fade into the background, or at least be seen in a more realistic perspective.  And unless you’re a true Joe Btfsplk (boy, I’m really showing my age now) you’re going to have an overwhelming number of “something goods” to overshadow the presenting issue.  (BTW…see today’s link for more about our old friend, Joe.)

Now, none of this is to suggest that you bury your head in the sand (a good friend says cover your head with a pillow) over the “something bad” that happened.   You certainly should learn from the experience and most likely can make some corrections to keep it from happening in the future.  So do what you need to do and then get your mind off of it.  (Maybe you need to get your mind off of it for a bit before it becomes clear what to do.)  But just like everything else we’re discussing on this topic of happiness…it’s a choice.

Choose wisely!

Prayer Power
Lord, we are so incredibly blessed to be able to acknowledge You as our Lord and Savior.  Your blessings are so abundant and prevalent in our lives that we too often take most of them for granted.  Give us the grace to instill the habit of frequently counting them.

Link of the Day
Joe Btfsplk’s bio

Blessings on you as you take control of your thoughts again today.