Considering My Blessings

This morning I read President Thomas S. Monson’s November 2012 conference talk titled “Consider the Blessings”.  In it, President Monson, who I believe to be a living prophet in our day, gives examples of events in his life which were blessings to him and to other people. He states “I have found that, rather than dwelling on the negative, if we will take a step back and consider the blessings in our lives, including seemingly small, sometimes overlooked blessings, we can find greater happiness.” Most of the blessings that President Monson shares are times in his life when he followed a spiritual prompting and was able to help someone else. He explains that “the Lord’s purposes are often accomplished as we pay heed to the guidance of the Spirit.”

In response to President Monson’s recommendation to “take an inventory of [my] life and look specifically for the blessings, large and small [I] have received, I would like to take a minute to consider a few of my own blessings that stem from heeding the guidance of the Spirit.

* A few weeks ago my husband and I ordered pizza. We live in a basement of a house and the entrance is around the side and down a stairwell. It’s also been very snowy, and we don’t have a clear path to our house. We tried to explain how to find our door in the order (and we’ve been successful in the past), but this time was different. Finally, the delivery girl called us for and my husband went outside and saw that she had walked in the snow all around the backyard. She also forgot one of our drinks and refused to take a tip. When my husband came back in, I suggested that we call her store and thank her for the service. We did, only to learn that this was her very first pizza delivery trip ever and we were her very first house! I do not know the result of our phone call, but I hope that it was a blessing to her, and that it helped her feel better about her first day on the job.

* My husband has to commute 2 1/2 hours one way once a week for classes. Last week, I started to feel like something was a little funny with our car, and I thought “Oh, I should probably take this in before my husband has to make another commute.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t registering that his next commute was this morning. He also didn’t think the car felt funny. But on Friday morning as I was leaving our neighborhood for an early morning meeting I knew that something was wrong. So I went home, picked up my husband and we drove to the car place and had a colleague pick me up for our meeting. It was an expensive day for us, but I am so grateful that we were able to take care of it before Monday. On top of regular classes, he has several important meetings he needed to get to today. This also helped us to realize that even though the weather isn’t great today, it’s important for him to drive up there (slowly… and safely).

Those are the two I’ll share for now. But to me they are evidence of the Lord’s hand in my life. They are reasons to trust in the Lord, and to listen to promptings of the Spirit and to respond without delay (our car bill may have been less expensive had I taken the car in as soon as I felt like I should instead of before I had no choice).

I would like to echo this prophet’s declaration that “our Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and will help us as we call upon Him for assistance. I believe that no concern of ours is too small or insignificant. The Lord is in the details of our lives.” I have experiences the Lord’s concern for me over and over and over again in my life. These are just a few examples of that. I also hope to reemphasize that we experience happiness, and that our blessings are truly blessings, when they allow us to serve others more fully.