Count Your Blessings
The local newspaper headline this morning said it all: “Jobless Rate at 30-Year High.” The accompanying news article says that Hawaii’s unemployment rate has reached 6.5%. That is a huge jump because not too long ago that number was about 2.5%. Yes, things are tough all over, even in paradise.
I know of at least six friends or family members who have been laid off from work since the start of the year. At my workplace, everyone had to take a salary cut. If a staff reduction becomes necessary, my boss (who happens to be my aunty) and I both agree that I would be the first to go. Although I have seniority over a couple of my coworkers, I’m in a better position than them to make do without a job for a while.
Maybe you’re facing a similar situation. Or maybe you’ve already lost your job. Perhaps our struggling economy has hurt you in some other way. Everything’s gloom and doom, right?
Wrong.
If you’re a regular at the Liberty News Forum, you know that I rarely participate in discussions about our economy and the seemingly myriad ways to fix it. I don’t know much about economics - I got a D in Economy in both high school and college - and it’s not a topic that interests me. So I don’t know how long our economic downturn will last. I don’t know if we’re heading for another Great Depression or not. (Why do they call it that, anyway? What was so “great” about it?)
But I do know this: I’m not going to worry about it. Why? Here are three reasons:
1. “Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge.” - Psalm 62:8
2. “Cast your cares on the Lord and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous fall. - Psalm 55:22 NIV
3. “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is life not more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?” - Matthew 6:25-27
I have great comfort in the fact that God is in control of everything. Things may get better, or things may get worse, God will sustain us.
In times such as this, I think it’s important to take stock in your life and recognize that God has blessed you in many ways. Yes, the economy is bad, but there are a lot more important things than money. Our nation’s leaders seem bent on destroying everything that made America great, but that doesn’t mean they can destroy you.
Take a few minutes to count your blessings. For myself, I’m thankful for my family, my friends and for Scott. I’m grateful for God watching over me. And above all, I’m grateful for my relationship with God. Nothing can change that.
I think that if you count your blessings every day and recognize the truly good things we have in our life, every day will be a victory.