Blessings from A to Z

Most of you who read my blog posts know of my bedtime routine. As I climb into bed each night, I say thank-you prayers. I start, these past 14 years, with thanks for this old but blessed mobile home I live in and the community in which it sits. Then I move on to thanks for the day's blessings. 

Sometimes, when things are tough, that can be as simple as a thank you for hot and cold running water in the house, for the working washer and dryer in the house (recalling all the years in apartments when I trudged to laundry rooms with change purses filled with coins), and even the bed I will sleep in that night.

Sometimes it can seem rather routine. Then I become concerned that I might begin taking things for granted.

Well, I somehow ended up with a sample edition of Guideposts' "Mornings with Jesus" devotions for March and April of this year. Because it contains two months' worth of devotions, I read it anew every two months. Some months, something will catch my attention strongly, even though I seem to have just brushed it off the last time I read the devotion.

The one that comes to mind now is related to my bedtime routine. Apparently a lot of folks do this.

One devotion writer, Sharon Hinck, told of how she uses the alphabet to work her way through her blessings each day and night.

What a great idea. I'm going to do that, myself. Let's see. Today is the 16th. That's the letter "P". So tonight, after the more obvious blessings of the day, I can check my life for those beginning with the letter "P". That's great - there's pet (my kitty, Silkie), there's petting my pet (the comfort of brushing her every night - our special time together), and prayer (for the comfort that prayer brings to me), for the excitement I feel over the sharp photos of the planet Pluto (I never thought, as a young girl, I'd ever see this day), and, a biggie, for the peace within my heart tonight! And that's just a few - I love this way of reminding myself of my blessings! 

Some letters will be a challenge, but I welcome that. Can't wait.

Sweet Lord Jesus, you know I can always find something to be thankful for each night when we talk. But once in a while, I am tired or stressed and my finite mind isn't as sharp as it might be. Bless the writer of that devotional for sharing it with the world. And thank you for calling my attention to it, that I might draw on its memory when I need to do so.