Counting Blessings

I've found that you can't always "Count Your Blessings". Sometimes they're obvious and you can recognize them when they're received. Sometimes you don't recognize them until much later and, I suppose, sometimes you never recognize a blessing as such.

The fellow I carpool to work with just recently had a son leave on a church mission. The other day he asked me if we've been blessed by having our son on a mission. I thought for just a second trying to identify a specific blessing I could attribute to Steven being on a mission. Failing to come up with one on the spur of the moment, I replied, "Sure. You can't always tell what bad things didn't happen."

Since then, we've had several good things happen. Certainly they could be attributed to any number of influences, including coincidence. Some people might say that they would have happened anyway. But, who's to say they weren't actual blessings we've received because we're trying to obey the Lord's commandments and that we're currently supporting a son on a mission?

A case in point. Recently our Chevy Blazer started acting very badly. All of a sudden, between stops running errands, it started to lose power, shift very hard and there was a noticable whine if it was taken above 20 miles per hour. It continued for a day or two before we took it into the shop for someone to check it out. After a couple of days of waiting, we called the shop for a report. We were told that it needed at least a transmission overhaul and more likely it needed a new transmission. Estimates ranged from $1700 for the overhaul to $2400 for a replacement transmission.

That evening, while saying our nightly prayers, I hesitated before finishing, debating whether to actually mention the Blazer. I struggled with the thought that it might seem silly to pray for a car, but remembered that we've been counseled to pray for any real need we have, even if it's an impending car repair expense. I decided that we could certainly use the Lord's help and and asked, "that the repair expense be kept to a minimum."

The next day we remembered that we had had Aamco do a minor repair about a year ago and called to ask if the warranty was still good. They said it was and told us that the same repairs quoted by the first shop would cost considerably less if they did them and that they offer free towing. So we had the Blazer towed to Aamco for them to diagnose and fix the problem. Shortly after that we received a call from them saying that they couldn't reproduce the problem and that the Blazer was working just fine with no problem at all.

We got the Blazer back running perfectly. The original shop never charged us anything. Aamco didn't charge us anything. So my prayer was answered about as literally as could be. The repair expense was about as "minimal" as it could get: $0.00.

Anyway, we choose to attribute this little blessing to the Lord listening to our prayers and rewarding us for doing what we should. And having a son on a mission certainly didn't hurt either.

So, whether you are feeling blessed or not, remember that you can't always tell when you're being blessed. Sometimes good things happen and sometimes bad things don't happen. Just do your best and "try" to count your blessings.