Penny Blessings

Found a shiny penny today. If pennies each represented a blessing, would a quarter equal twenty-five blessings? What does a person do with his blessings? I suppose one could spend them, keep them for himself, give them away, or even leave them on the ground and walk away.

If one left them on the ground and walked away from them, does that mean they don't want or need a blessing? Perhaps they left it for another person to find, hoping that that person could use a blessing? Maybe adding to the blessing would also be an option here.

If the blessed spent his blessing on himself the blessing would be short-lived, however, if the blessed spent his blessing on someone else, the blessing would be multiplied, since there would now be two people blessed.

If the blessed kept the blessing for himself and just hid it away, it would quickly lose the power to impact his life and would become just another penny in the bank.

What if the blessed invested his blessings in order to make them grow? I suppose there would be a few options here, too. Say I took my blessing and bought a lottery ticket or played the slots. The chances of a return on my blessing would be small, although several people would choose this option to increase their blessings. The most effective way I have found to double my blessings is to share them with someone else. Yes, we are talking about more than finding a penny on the sidewalk here. God has given us so much and we have the idea that if we don't keep our blessings close to us that we will lose them. The truth is, it is in sharing that we increase our blessing and in hoarding them we lose them. Think about the times you have done something for someone else, or given them something they needed. Do you remember how you felt? Do you remember how they reacted? So....who got blessed here? Yes, both of you. God asks us to tithe ten percent. Do you really think He needs the money? Of course not. The giving of the tithe is for us to learn the joy of giving.

There is a movie called, "Pay It Forward". The joy someone gets in doing for others is not something one can bottle and sell as an elixir. The glitch in all that has been said here is that in order to supercharge a blessing one must have the right attitude. Do something nice or blessing someone with the intent to receive for yourself takes the power out of the blessing. There are times that it also removes the blessed person to feel the impact of the blessing. If love and joy are attached to the blessing given, it is like attaching fireworks to the package and increases the potential for more than just a couple people to partake of the blessing.

So, if you, like me, see the penny on the ground as God's blessing to me, ask how you can be God's blessing to someone else. It's more than finding a penny, it's the joy in sharing God's love to someone else. You will find your own life has become more meaningful.

Assignment: Start a blessing log. At the end of each day write down at least one blessing that you received that day. Some days it might only be that you noticed the beauty of the open tulips in your neighbor's yard, but this exercise will result in you looking for blessings during the day and not focusing as much on the negative.