I think this one gets an “Amen” and an “Oof” from me at the same time. It’s powerful and convicting.

I do think this culture has taught us to focus on what’s wrong with our lives. So much of our advertising has been training us to compare our lives and our stuff with our neighbor’s bigger house and better car. Those are the proverbial Joneses we’ve been taught to keep up with . . . or else we’re failing at life.

But the result is that we focus on trials and blessings get minimalized or forgotten. I know I can get hyper-focused on my latest hardship enough to forget five blessings within the same week.

The cure is to give thanks as often as we are blessed. I did a thing a few years ago where I wrote down one thousand blessings. Actually, I started with a goal of 1,000 and ended up going way over. It’s easy once you get going.

The Apostle Paul basically says that the will of God is for you to pray unceasingly and to give thanks. That’s it, because once your whole life is an offering to God and your whole attitude is gratitude, then you see your world differently. You see God where you didn’t see Him before. You see Him everywhere.

So speak your blessings. Write them down. Engrave them in marble instead of sand. Let sand be for your trials, because the writing will be as transitory as your trials.