Name them One by One

On Wednesday I was having a really rough morning. 5.5 hours of sleep, car died on the way to work, alarm went off at work because I didn't have the code for the office for a couple of minutes, customer practically shouted at me because we opened at (I arrived at 7:14) 7:20 instead of 7:00 (excuse me, but I have to count out the safe and that's a little more important than your 8 ounces of coffee), coworker got into a car accident so it's just two of us for morning shift, customer wanted a refund because she didn't want to stay another night because of the rain, I dropped a whole roll of quarters when I was giving it to a customer, and I hadn't finished breakfast (I brought it with me) and it was only 8 in the morning!

It was about 08:45 when I realized that my bad mood resulting from the bad events was not going to help anyone, especially not me. The lyrics from the hymn "Count Your Blessings" came to mind, "When life's billows you are tempest tossed, when you are discouraged thinking all is lost, count your many blessings; name them one by one, and it will surprise what the Lord has done." So I decided to make a list of blessings.

I really had to think about what I have now that I didn't have before, what I have gained, what I have always had, and what I am lucky to have. It was relieving. I couldn't believe that, despite the simple list of things I came up within a few minutes, I felt better. It was very grounding and I felt so much better afterwards.

I testify to you that as we remember the things we are grateful for, we will feel the love of our Heavenly Father and Christ's grace will do it's job in giving us the strength we need. I'll close in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.