My Ebenezer Board: A Hunt for Blessings

“The kids are sick AGAIN.  Can’t catch a break.”

“Why do I bother getting the mail? It’s always another bill.”

“Starbucks took away another sugar free drink…I’m pretty sure they hate me!”

I’m not known as Miss Negativity, but I don’t have to try very hard to find something to complain about.  Sure I have legitimate junk in my life to gripe about, from health issues to parenting problems.  But I pepper in plenty of superficial complaints, from whining over coffee to lamenting that my kids don’t know how to shut a door.  Ever.  (But seriously.  Ever. Bathroom? Nope.  Kitchen? Negative.  Crap, there I go complaining again.)

We need a safe place to vent our very real hurts and pains.  But sometimes the negative becomes a default lens through which we see life.  It’s like sunglasses: they’re helpful at the beach or driving in the sun, but they trip us up if we try to wear them inside or when it’s dark out.  Likewise, verbalizing our troubles can be a lens that helps us focus and process the hard parts of our lives.  But when complaining becomes our daily wear, our default posture, it trips us up and keeps us from seeing the blessings right in front of us.

So how do we change our lens?

We have to start intentionally noticing our positives, our blessings, our everyday miracles.  The silver lining of rest in the snow storm.  The joy of a house filled with children’s laughter (even if they really should be sleeping!)  The reliance on God we’ve found in our pain.  And the outright moments of favor that we sometimes treat more as a right than grace.

For some of us that means creating a gratitude journal like Ann Voskamp suggests in her book One Thousand Gifts.  Maybe that’s a good start to help you see good things all around you!

For others it may mean asking our friends or significant other to help us notice when we’ve drifted from healthy processing of our pain to a leaky faucet of negativity.  (And then graciously taking their comment without further complaining…not that I’m an expert there. Ahem.)

For me, my method of hunting for blessings has turned visual.  A product of the Pinterest craze, I’ve found myself creating offline boards that represent my prayers and dreams…and most recently, my blessings.  This year for the first time, I sat my family down and told them we were going to hunt for God’s blessings and answers to prayer this year, taking pictures to represent those good things:

I’m especially trying to notice the things I’ve asked for or needed that God gave without my striving or contriving.  I’ve included big things like a brand new shed that my in-laws/sister-in-law gave us for Christmas!!  But I’m also choosing to give thanks for the seemingly small things like the new pair of amazing house slippers that I’d been wanting (and not wanting to pay for) that were graciously and randomly given to me by a good friend.

I added a picture of my whole family (parents, siblings, spouses and kids!) that represents the first time in three years that we were all together.  It’s hard to forget the miracles I’ve already lived this year when they’re pinned and visible to me every day.

And call me crazy, but I even took a picture of a letter we got from our state that our kid’s insurance would be continued after concerns it might be cancelled.  If I’m going to take the time to pray for God to help us, I need to take the time to recognize His provision as well.

The word Ebenezer comes from an Old Testament story of the prophet and priest, Samuel.  The nation of Israel had a history of following God then abandoning Him again- remember His blessings then forgetting.  1 Samuel 7 shows us a peak at a moment when the Israelites had chosen to follow God again, intentionally turning away from trusting lesser things that distracted and emptied them.

But an enemy nation decided to take advantage of their vulnerability and attack them in the middle of their heartfelt repentance.

The Israelites, much like myself, were panicked.  They probably thought, as I have, “Reeeealllly great, God.  Here we are turning to you, and this is what we get?  We’re going to be tampled?  I knew it…there’s no good news here.  Life sucks and then you die, right?”

But in their fear, they acknowledged God and asked Samuel to pray for them.  God graciously allowed them to defeat their enemy that day.

In that moment of God’s provision, Samuel demonstrates what a blessings board might look like in his time.  1 Samuel 7:12 says, “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

Samuel’s Ebenezer stone is the catalyst for my Ebenezer board.  I can complain and fear and count my disadvantages and find I’m actually putting fertilizer in the soil of my misery.   OR…I can choose to make my own stone of thanks, my own form of acknowledging that, “YES.  Thus far the Lord has helped me.  And I’m going to keep my eyes wide open and expect Him to show up again.”

My prayer for myself is that I begin EXPECT God’s goodness, even if it looks differently than I’d imagined, because I’m keeping record of who He is and what He’s done.  There’s so much power there.

How will you hunt for blessings this week on your own or as a family?  As you ask God for help, how can you acknowledge the good things He’s already given?  What other ways have you found helpful to develop eyes to see God’s blessings?

New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.