A line from the gospel song enjoins us to, “count your blessings, name them one by one”. It is an encouragement to not forget how God has blessed us.

It is easy to reduce this counting to the tangible things we experience day-by-day. Maybe things like a new job opportunity or a recovery from illness or the arrival of a new baby in our home. There are so many blessings we experience and usually we do have a sense of thankfulness to God.

I wonder though, if there are not blessings we easily overlook. What I am going to address are some blessings that not all Christians have been able to enjoy. These are the blessings we find imbedded in the privilege of growing up in a Christian home and being a part of Biblical church that has provided a great deal of stability in our lives.

When people evaluate the home or the church of their childhood it is easy to first identify the negatives. And  of course those negatives may be quite real. Parents are not perfect and churches may have glaring weaknesses. Without doubt, some serious injuries have been inflicted on people in the homes and the churches of our fellowship.

Should we allow our life’s story to be defined by the negatives? Reaction to hurt and wrong often causes overreaction. We may,  in the process of reaction lose the blessings that possibly were not obvious to us.

It is not always hurt and wrong that blinds us to the blessings we have received. As we enter the adult world we are exposed to new ideas about life. Our circle of influence may now include new friends who have had different life and spiritual experiences. It may be the exposure to new ideas in the college or university.

Sometimes youth and young adults are eager to jettison some of the beliefs and ideas of their parents and their church. They may seem outdated or useless in today’s world.

Indeed there needs to be a healthy wrestling with the issues of faith, beliefs and a Biblical lifestyle by every generation. But in our searching for answers, it is critical that we first look back and ask ourselves, “How were we blessed in our experience by our families and churches”?

If we were contemplating buying a business we would certainly want to know what the liabilities were of that business. But the picture wouldn’t be complete if we failed to evaluate the assets.

I want to encourage those of us who are a part of the Anabaptist/Pietist community of faith to stop and think deeply about the assets of our heritage. We can get caught up in focusing on the issues of hypocrisy, legalism and authoritarianism and totally miss the richness of the blessings.

I will suggest a few. I invite you to add to the list.

1. The ethic of hard work.
2. The habit of regular attendance at church.
3. Parents who disciplined us and taught us the importance of obedience.
4. A church who insists that marriage is permanent. Just look around at the disaster we have in our culture today and be thankful.
5. The blessing of a “father” and a “mother”. What a mess the world is experiencing today! Do we grasp the blessing of gender identity and gender roles? Are we committed to not allowing those blessings to be lost?
6. The value of family, extended family and spiritual family.
7. The blessing of being protected from environments that could have been spiritually damaging to us as children or youth. I would share a personal example. I am thankful that my parents did not want me to participate in sports in public high school. I view it now as a wise parental decision.
8. I am thankful for a father who taught me to give “a gospel measure” in business and work situations.

It is easy to forget or even be unaware of the blessings that have brought stability to our life. God warned Israel not to forget His works and blessings. But the record shows that after Israel entered into the land God had promised them they quickly forgot. They became like the nations around them. We too can be swallowed up by the culture around us and not even be aware of the deadly and sad consequences.

Count your blessings!