CHOOSING TO BE BLESSED

By Angela Strong

                This morning I sent a text to my husband saying, “You bless me.” This got me thinking about blessings. Because my husband was married once before to a woman who did not consider him a blessing though he probably loved her the same way he loves me. So is being blessed really an action? Or is it a reaction?

                Think about it. Have you heard the same complaints I’ve heard about people who say God blessed them when they avoided a tragedy or got a raise? These complainers are offended that anybody would consider themselves blessed in such circumstances because that would mean the people who were hurt in the tragedy or didn’t get a raise were not blessed by God.

                Is that true? If you get in a car accident with someone else, and they get injured but you do not, are you the only one God chose to bless? Who would want to worship a God like that?

                As I’m pondering this stuff, I open my Bible to 1 Corinthians 4, and it answered my questions. The answer is we are ALL blessed.

                “Isn’t everything you have and everything you are sheer gifts from God? So what’s the point of all this comparing and competing? You already have all you need.”

                I love this. Could I be any more blessed? Could you? God has given us all we need!

                What you need and what I need are going to be different. Which makes our God so incredibly personal. He doesn’t give us all the same things because he created us to be unique and have unique needs.

                I find this idea so incredibly freeing. Especially in the writing world where I want my writing to reach millions just like every other author does, I’m sure. But it’s not possible for everyone to have that. We have to trust that God knows exactly what each one of us needs.

For me, that meant the first publisher for my children’s novel went under so that I could release the book years later when my kids were old enough to fully engage in the experience and my husband was able to do the illustrations. Honestly, this is not what I would have planned for myself, but it was what I needed.

If I can believe God gives me just what I need, then I can believe God is doing the same for other authors. If they get a huge sale and I don’t, or if they win awards and I don’t, or if their book gets made into a movie and mine doesn’t, I can rejoice for them without the slightest bit of jealousy because I know that God is giving them what they need. I know that I am as blessed as they are.

So I would suggest that whether the issue is our writing or our love lives, God gives us all exactly what we need.  We are all blessed. We just have to choose to believe it.