{"id":144,"date":"2014-10-07T02:56:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-07T02:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/?p=144"},"modified":"2014-10-07T15:47:55","modified_gmt":"2014-10-07T15:47:55","slug":"count-your-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/?p=144","title":{"rendered":"Count Your Blessings!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Each year, I catch myself anxiously anticipating the season of Autumn and the month of October.\u00a0 Their arrival always brings much joy to me.\u00a0 There are simply so many things to love about the month of October.\u00a0 A few of these things include the football season, the cool nights, the leaves turning colors, and the grass dying (less mowing for me!).\u00a0 Those are just a few things that come to mind when I think of October.\u00a0 As the year begins to wind down and the days grow shorter, I find myself reflecting on all the good Lord has blessed me with throughout the year.\u00a0 When I sit down and really take a moment to think about all I have been blessed with, I am absolutely overwhelmed.\u00a0 As a kid in church, I used to listen to the adults sing all the old hymns and they eventually became ingrained in my memory.\u00a0 The funny thing is that it wasn’t until I was much older that I realized that the lyrics in those old hymns contain messages that are timeless and words that speak so eloquently of God\u2019s love for us and his promise to us.\u00a0 A perfect example of this is the old hymn \u201cCount Your Blessings.\u201d<\/h4>\n

When upon life’s billows you are tempest tossed,<\/h4>\n

When you are discouraged, thinking all is lost,<\/h4>\n

Count your many blessings, name them one by one,<\/h4>\n

And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.<\/h4>\n

<\/h4>\n

Count your blessings, name them one by one;<\/h4>\n

Count your blessings, see what God hath done;<\/h4>\n

Count your blessings, name them one by one;<\/h4>\n

Count your many blessings, see what God hath done.<\/h4>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 My late grandmother was a remarkable lady in every sense of the word.\u00a0 Looking back, I saw the love of Christ mirrored through her in many ways.\u00a0 She truly allowed Christ to use her as his hands and feet, and as a result she was a blessing to so many people over the course of her lifetime.\u00a0 One of the things she would do was bake pies.\u00a0 When someone was sick, or had just moved into the neighborhood, she would deliver a pie to them.\u00a0 When delivering the pie, she would simply say \u201cGod loves you, and so do I.\u201d\u00a0 When I happened to be visiting, she would often take me along with her to deliver those pies. \u00a0Through this simple act of kindness, she was a blessing to many.\u00a0 As the body of Christ, we have many chances each day to be a blessing to others.\u00a0 This month, I hope that we can spread the love of Christ by simply smiling at someone, giving them a hug, offering a word of encouragement, or simply taking the time to show a person that we really care.\u00a0 Be a blessing to someone, and remember…Count your many blessings, see what God hath done!<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Each year, I catch myself anxiously anticipating the season of Autumn and the month of October.\u00a0 Their arrival always brings much joy to me.\u00a0 There are simply so many things to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/canoe.stephencoleman.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}