Blessings are things that we usually pray for.  We ask for blessings as we give thanks for our meals.  We ask for blessings on others to have a blessed day.  We  view these blessings as coming from above and extending down upon ourselves.  Today, however, I would ask that you expand upon your view of blessings and for a moment consider them as an act of faith that comes to you, through you and then out to others.

I recently sprained my knee.  The doctor said that it would take quite some time before it would heal and that the recovery would involve some physical therapy.  I agreed that my knee was indeed in pain and that I would follow the Doctor's instructions.

However, when I came home to ice my knee, I began to think about this injury in a different way.  As I hobbled to the freezer to prepare my ice pack, I decided to bless the ice.  I held the ice packet in my hand and extended blessings and gratitude for the fact that it was so simple to obtain the pain relieving ice.  I turned around and blessed the refrigerator.  These blessings were based upon a deep and sincere sense of gratitude.  

I wanted to complain about the pain and the fact that  I was unable to perform simple tasks.  Instead, I decided to bless the tasks I could perform.   I hobbled back to my chair and blessed my legs for carrying me there.  I held the ice pack on my knee and blessed my hands for their ability to hold it securely in place. I blessed the chair for providing me with comfort and I even blessed the pain as it provided me a sure direction of what way to move and what way not to move.

I continued this process throughout the next few days, blessing my bed of comfort, the warm water of my shower, the food that I ate and even the Tylenol.  By day three, my pain had vanished.  I did not need any physical therapy.   My knee was healed.

It is important, I believe, to understand that in all of this process I never once asked for a healing.   Rather, I extended gratitude and blessings that were channeled through me from the Ultimate Source.  This experience strengthened my faith and helped me to understand the body at a deeper level.  It is here to serve us and for that we can feel a deep level of gratitude.

Maybe a better title for this blog is Living a Life of Gratitude as I believe we can only extend blessings successfully when they are deeply embedded in a sense of gratitude.  

I encourage you to try this approach for a few days.  Rather than asking for blessings, try to have faith in the fact that they are freely given to you, through you, and that it is your task to extend them to yourself and to others. 

Please let me know how this process goes for you and with a deep sense of gratitude to you, my readers, I bless you!

Rev. Barbara