Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Count Your Many Blessings

Every day I read to my kids at 10 AM for a half hour (Well, most days if everything goes as planned.) I always feel more productive on the days that I read to them. They sit at the kids table in the playroom and draw and color while I sit in a chair and read. A few weeks ago we finished The Secret Garden by Francis Hodgson Burnett and we topped it off by watching the movie.

Now we are reading Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. (I like to read books that can be followed up with a movie.) Today we read Chapter 4 in which the March girls' mother told them a story with a moral. The story was about four girls that never seemed to be happy with what they had, and they seemed to be always yearning for more or better. The moral of the story was to be content and count the blessings that you do have. So when we finished reading the chapter, we sang the first verse of Count Your Blessings and I got a purple crayon and had my children count their blessings as I wrote them down. It was fun to listen to them. We counted 51. I'm sure they could've counted more, but some blessings seemed to fit into some of the broader categories that we wrote down already, like "toys" or "family". Here is their list:

  1. Family (this includes siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts uncles, great-grandparents,cousins.)
  2. House
  3. Education/School/Learning
  4. Toys (this could include MANY sub topics)
  5. Bed
  6. Food
  7. TV
  8. Computer
  9. Health
  10. Safety/Freedom
  11. Church
  12. Friends
  13. Games (This could be grouped with toys, but I thought it deserved to be its own blessing.)
  14. Garden
  15. Chalk
  16. Clothes
  17. Daddy's job
  18. Bikes
  19. Cars
  20. Neighbors
  21. Books 
  22. Scriptures
  23. "Cubbies" (1 cubic foot of private space that you can keep your stuff and nobody can touch it.)
  24. Bathrooms (No outhouses.)
  25. Movies 
  26. Music (Instruments and Grooveshark.com)
  27. Camera
  28. Aprons 
  29. Phone
  30. Vacuum/Broom
  31. Pencils/Crayons
  32. Air Conditioning
  33. Paper
  34. Shoes
  35. Tables/Chairs
  36. Windows
  37. Utensils/Plates
  38. Furniture
  39. Pictures of Jesus
  40. Sinks and Bathtubs
  41. Kitchens
  42. Hair (This is when they began to name all body parts and I lumped them into "our bodies" in #43)
  43. Our bodies and spirits
  44. Our senses, including sense of humor and common sense (even if the common sense might be lacking at times.)
  45. Nature
  46. Art
  47. USA
  48. Clocks
  49. Cleaning supplies and tools
  50. Rainy Days
  51. Sunny Days




Now here are some You Tube videos of the hymn "Count Your Many Blessings.":

#1  I can't help but think of the Munchkin Land when I listen to to this one:



#2 I think the person who made this video is grateful for fruit and 15 clip art blessings:



#3 is my favorite - Quartet Style:



"So they agreed to stop complaining, to enjoy the blessings already possessed, and try to deserve them, lest they should be taken away entirely, instead of increased, and I believe they were never disappointed or sorry that they took the old woman's advice."
-- Marmee from Little Women 

Have you counted your blessings lately? Count them with a happy feeling :)

4 comments:

  1. Brought tears to my eyes...what a blessed mother they have been given.

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  2. What a great post. One time, I was going through a stressful period and my brother (who is five years younger than me) was sitting in my room talking to me. I had a bunch of glow in the dark stars all over the walls and ceiling of my room. We sat and talked for hours about everything that was going on with me and he was quiet for most of our conversation until near the very end when he pointed to one star. He said, "Try and think of something you are grateful for, for each point on that star right there." So I did, and I started to feel a little better. Then he said, "Now do it for all the stars in this room." I was extremely thankful for my little brother who helped me to count my blessings when I felt extremely stressed. That was years ago, but I always think of that experience whenever I sing the hymn or hear someone talking about counting their blessings. :) Thanks for the reminder!! :)

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  3. Aprons! I can imagine them looking around the house seeing everything for the first time- is this a blessing? Very sweet.

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  4. A very inspiration post. I also count pictures of Jesus as a true blessing.

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