Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep

Today we are seeing many people who are, maybe for the first time in their lives, dealing with real financial adversity, and great uncertainty. For those 62% of Americans who in the most recent poll know that the Obama administration and Congress are taking America in the wrong economic direction there is real fear trying to figure out just how bad it may soon be. It must be nice to be part of the 38% living in denial or confusion. Is it scary? Yes. Is is upsetting? Yes. Can we personally do anything about it? Not really, we can only do something about us. Sure we can complain, we can campaign, but ultimately we have to look out for ourselves and our families no matter what vacuous headed programs Washington shoves down our throats.

Viktor Frankl, who survived a Nazi concentration camp, learned that it wasn't the strength or health of the prisoners that determined who lived and who died, but their attitudes. He told us;

"The last of human freedoms - the ability to chose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances."

"When we are no longer able to change a situation - we are challenged to change ourselves."

"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

It would be hard to imagine life more dire and hopeless than being in one of those Nazi Concentration camps, the torture, the starvation, the total degradation. Frankl spoke of how the captures can starve you, beat you, take everything from you including your life and you could do nothing about it, however, they couldn't take your attitude without you giving it up yourself. What a powerful statement.

No matter what your personal battles may be, you have the option of controlling your own attitude. You may well need to find a strength that you may not know you have to do it, but you can. It doesn't matter if you are dealing with financial hardships, marital difficulties, and those often go together. It doesn't matter if your job, or business is failing, your kids are making poor choices and paying the consequences of them, no matter what you are dealing with, you can and must take control of your attitude.

If you would take all of your cares that are weighing you down, that feel like they are sucking the air out of you, and lay them in the middle of the room. If there were a roomful of people in this magic room doing the same, and you could do a blind trade, their problems for yours. You might want yours back, they may not seem so bad after seeing those others are dealing with. One more reason to always try to be kind in our dealings with others, we never know what they are carrying around.

This last week I have had several acquaintances and friends have tragedy strike their lives. One was simply having lunch with a friend and suddenly died of a heart attack in the restaurant at sixty. Another was an old high school girl friend, whose family were long time neighbors of our family who died suddenly, I don't know the cause, at fifty it was too soon and far too sudden. Then yesterday we learn that a past client of mine was found in his car dealer office dead by suicide at forty three, leaving behind a wife and four children. Who knows what drove him there, who knows what caused the hopelessness to feel that only a permanent solution could solve his temporary situations. One more shocking event, a friend and past co-worker's husband was playing with their children climbing a tree and fell breaking his back. We are told that they are unsure of his chances of walking again, another young man with a young family. Thank God he is alive and from what I am hearing is holding a great attitude through it. Upon hearing these stories, do your problems really sound that bad, do they really seem insurmountable, would you ask to trade back for your own in that magic room?

There are some things that work for me. One of them is actually captured in one of my favorite songs by Bing Crosby in White Christmas.

"When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep.
And I fall asleep counting my blessings.
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all,
and I fall asleep counting my blessings.

I think of a nursery and I picture curly heads
and one by one I count them as they slumber in their beds.
If your worried and you can't sleep
just count your blessings instead of sheep
and you'll go to sleep counting your blessings."

When I am under pressure, when things are weighing me down, those nights when ledger sheets and daily, unresolved problems keep rolling in my head. I find that Counting my blessings is exactly what the doctor ordered. I simply pray a prayer of Thanksgiving. I start Thanking God for ALL of my many blessings. I start with His gift of Salvation, then my wife who is as much of a blessing and as much undeserved as that salvation. Each child, family member, health, the love we all share, the friendships, the home we live in, cars we drive, food we eat, on and on. I very rarely finish the prayer before I have drifted off to a very sweet sleep. I don't think God minds that I fall asleep in the middle of our talk, at least He never said so. I have often told my kids if your worried or upset, tell God, He is going to be up all night anyway.

Another area that I find great comfort is reading Psalms. In Psalms you will find such wonderful encouragement, many were written during the darkest days David ever went through while his best friend's father, King Saul, was trying to have David killed. David was hiding and on the run, but spoke of his joy in the Lord. If you are a Christian there is a huge difference between being happy and being filled with Joy. Happy is unsustainable and comes and goes with events in your life, Joy is constant and can carry you through those ups and downs. This is a talk for another blog post, but in short Happiness is conditional on what is going on in your life, Joy is knowing where you are going.

Listen to Viktor Frankl, know that no matter what happens to you, you can and must be in charge of how you choose to deal with it. I have always heard that God will not give you more than He thinks you can handle. There have been many times in my life I wish He didn't believe in me so much. But in the end, He was always right. He will be for you as well.