Blessed

Blessed

What does it mean to you? Like the word love, the word blessed is often misused and overused. How many times have we heard about persecution and martyrs and said, “We sure are blessed”? I must admit that I am guilty. How many times have we heard of someone who is struggling financially and looked at our own comfort and said, “Boy, the Lord has really blessed us!”? How many times have we seen a person with a missing limb or heard of a person dying in an accident and said, “Wow, how blessed I am.”

A year ago, a precious and beautiful childhood friend of mine was in the fight of her life. She had been diagnosed with cancer and was hospitalized with complications before they could even get treatments going. She remained hospitalized most of the days she had left on this earth. One day as I was thinking of her, I thought about how “blessed” I was to never have had to go through that. How blessed I was to never have been through that with anyone in my immediate family (though I did go through it with my Grandmother). I felt a check in my spirit. Did I consider myself more blessed than SueAnn because she was dealing with cancer, and I was not? NO! Do I consider myself more blessed because she is now with Jesus and I am here? My resounding answer is NO!!!

So, what is “blessed” anyway? Several online dictionaries say “highly favored.” What makes me highly favored? Only that my Father loved me so much that He gave His only Son to die in my place. Only that Jesus loved me so much He was willing to take my place in death. Dear God, please help me to remember what it means to be blessed. Help me not to misuse a word that only means You love me an awful lot!