Let us thank God for all the blessings in our lives

I think we have all had the experience of being bitten by a mosquito. In fact, we normally don’t even notice the bite in the first place, but later realize that we have been bitten. We don’t feel the bite because the mosquito numbs the area before the bite.
It reminds me of what the devil does to us. We often don’t notice the bite of the enemy because we have allowed ourselves to be completely distracted by so many things. 
We worry about our finances, we worry about friends, we worry about politics, we focus on passing pleasures and we are just not paying attention to what is really happening to us. It is really easy for this to happen.
What is the remedy? How can we combat this inattentiveness? The simple answer is two-fold. First, I think we need to develop the habit of noticing our surroundings. 
We need to notice the beauty of the world and notice the people that we interact with. 
This should help us remain rooted with the real world around us. Second, I think we need to practice focusing on the concrete moments that we live in.  We tend to worry about things that are not yet an actual problem for us. We work ourselves and lose our peace. Our peace is robbed by a nonexistent problem.
When I find myself filled with worry or feelings of being overwhelmed, I start to count my blessings. We all have so much to be thankful for, but we often don’t ponder our abundant blessings! If you begin to list your blessings, I think you will find that you have much to be thankful for. 
Let’s be thankful for our blessings and thank God for them!
— Pat Arensberg is the Director of the Office for Evangelization and Family Life. Email him at [email protected].
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