The other night my 3-year-old daughter had a nightmare and so I found myself lying next to her at 2:30am trying to sooth her back to sleep. This has been happening more frequently now, probably because of her age and active imagination. One of the things that I do is hum to her as a way to get her to calm down and go back to sleep. The other night a song from the movie White Christmaspopped into my head and so I began humming the tune to Count Your Blessings. White Christmashas always been a favorite movie of mine, but if you haven’t seen it in a while you can watch the clip on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vb5My4Vfsdo)
Here is how the song begins,
“When I'm worried and I can't sleep
I count my blessings instead of sheep
And I fall asleep counting my blessings
When my bankroll is getting small
I think of when I had none at all
And I fall asleep counting my blessings”
Humming this tune to Annalise as she tried to settle her mind after a nightmare made me stop to think about the many, many blessings in my own life - my kids being two big ones! I’ve found that in these recent days the bad, stressful, upsetting, dark moments in my day can sometimes outnumber the kind, joy-filled, hopeful moments. And when that happens it can become easy, far too easy, to lose sight of our blessings. Remembering your blessings, big and small, and giving thanks to God for them can help to ground you when the world is shifting all around you. And so I encourage you each day before you go to bed to think about your many blessings as you fall asleep and give thanks to God for the continued goodness that God has bestowed upon you that day and everyday.
