How to know you’re blessed

It’s the bad days that help us to appreciate the good days. Without them, we’d have no comparison point. David was talking to himself one day, and he recorded his thoughts for us: “May I never forget the good things he does for me.” Here are six “good things” worth thinking about: (1) If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million people who will not survive this week. (2) If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are better off than 500 million people in the world. (3) If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than 3 billion people in the world. (4) If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof over your head, and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75 percent of the world. (5) If you have money in the bank or in your wallet or spare change in a dish someplace, you rank among the top 8 percent of the world’s wealthy. (6) If you can read this devotion, you are more blessed than over 2 billion people in the world who cannot read at all. There is always someone who is worse off. That doesn’t mean you revel in other people’s misery. But it ought to heighten your Christ-like compassion and give you a sense of gratitude that spills over into thanksgiving each day.