Blessings

Please get your sing-song voice ready...Count your blessings, count them one by one, count your blessings see what God has done... Isn't that the first thing that everyone thinks of when they hear the word blessings?! Maybe that is just me. :)

The real reason for this post is that our small group recently started a new book called the "The Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows" by James Bryan Smith. We just finished discussing Chapter 3...and our group has loved this book so far! I won't go into too many details about the book itself, but one thing it has us do each week is a "soul-training exercise." We do the assigned exercise each day of the week, and the exercise changes each week. For example, one week we were supposed to get a full nights sleep every night and another week we were supposed to take 5 minutes out of our day and just be silent. To fully understand what I'm talking about, read the book!

Anyway, this week our soul-training exercise has been to count our blessings. Landon and I have loved spending time together each day just counting our blessings! Some are obvious and some are serious and some are silly, but we consider them blessings nonetheless. I really want to encourage everyone to (1) read the book, and (2) count your blessings. Even though counting our blessings as a soul-training exercise assignment is over, Landon and I have decided to become very intentional about counting our blessings. We already made a list last week, but we are now going to continue to add things to our list every night. It is so easy to get caught up in the things that aren't going our way, but counting our blessings reminds us of just how blessed we truly are!

I will leave you with some blessings that Landon and I listed, though there are many, many more on our list (and these are in no particular order):
Truly being best friends with each other
Dr. Pepper (L)
Our church, sunday school class, and small group
A few good TV shows that we enjoy watching together
The baby boy in my belly
Having the opportunity to travel
Our home
Salvation and eternal life
A big, jacuzzi bath tub (J)
Our furry baby Lucy
A safe neighborhood to live in and bring a baby home to
Our health
Our families
Being able to watch my parents 30-year marriage and my grandparents 60-year marriage (J)
Two cars that are in good condition
Stable jobs
Friends that encourage us in our marriage
My silly cousin Kelsey, who makes us laugh all.the.time.
A small group that wears sweats and pajamas (yes, this is actually a big deal to me) :)
Xbox 360 (L)
A big, comfy king-size bed
Long-time friendships that have seen us through many phases of life
Chocolate milkshakes