The saboteur of blessing is not always clothed in black with horns coming out his head, nor is it the person who got in the way of your promotion, nor is it the person that you last argued with. Often we have in our own ways disguised the true saboteur of blessing.
The word blessing itself is a funny one. It becomes even funnier when we try to define clearly what it is. Is it a gift? Is it heavenly provision? Is it money? Is it good weather? Is it good friends? A roof over your head? A happy family? A good marriage? It could be any of these things and it could be all these things.
Blessings
So the real question is, if there are so many things that can be deemed blessings, why is it that so often we fail to recognise our own blessings even when it’s staring us in the face?
Perhaps we in our own misunderstanding have disguised the saboteur of blessing in misconstrued versions of ‘blessings’. Or perhaps we have disguised the saboteur in a vision or expectation that we hope for so badly that we forget to see what is in front of us.
Ingratitude
The biggest saboteur of blessing is our ingratitude. This ingratitude covers our vision to see the little in the mundane which can very probably be a blessing that many others do not get. Yet, we often can disguise our ingratitude in a few different ways.
Firstly, often we can get trapped into only seeing the ‘big things’ as blessings and therefore only searching for the big life changing things.
Secondly, familiarity breed contempt- in many instances we are so used to our day to day that we no longer look for the little things that make it better than the rest, nor are we thankful for the parts which make up our routines.
Thirdly, comparison leads to complacency. We aren’t designed to all get given the same blessings yet so often we see other people’s blessings whilst failing to recognise our own and instead of being grateful for what we have been given we are instead scornful that we don’t have what another has.
Gratitude
Blessings, come in all different shapes and sizes and most importantly for all different reasons. Take a minute, to reflect and to search for the little things in the mundane that you can be grateful for.
Gratitude is the propeller of seeing our blessings and translates to the generous heart in which we can have to bless others. God is constantly moving, he is constantly blessing and trying to comfort, console and grab our attention- if only we took a minute to look, to reflect and to be grateful for that which surrounds us, and for the opportunities in which we find ourselves in.
Araina Kazia Pereira from Wellington, New Zealand is a published writer having written for various outlets and most recently joining as a Press Service International young writer. She enjoys asking the big questions and writing about the challenging questions that she has wrestled with in her own journey, as well as her learnings along the way. You can contact her at arainakaziapereira@gmail.com.