Count your blessings

I recently found myself scrolling through my feed on social media and came upon a list of complaints a tour operator received from actual clients. Some of my favorites were: “The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room.” And, “We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish.” Lastly, “It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seemed unfair.”

We live in a beautiful place. Alaska is a vacation or bucket list destination for many people who pay thousands of dollars to spend 7-10 days in our backyard. One of my patients from the lower 48 was staying at a lodge near Denali National Park when she developed appendicitis. She spoke about how disappointed she was in her vacation because the clouds had limited her ability to see Denali. She felt her dream vacation was a failure as I admitted her that night. Her previous goals were not being met, and now she was in the hospital, sad and somewhat depressed as she noted that life was not working out how she had planned.

She had surgery in the early morning, and when I saw her in her hospital bed later that day, I found her crying. I asked her what was wrong. Did she have post-operative pain? Did she not sleep during the night? Was she hungry? But no, she was crying because of the view from her hospital bed. Pioneer Peak had a bit of snow still on it, and it stood out in all its glory that day. She did not think she had seen a more beautiful sight. She commented on how beautiful the mountain looked and found it funny that, in some ways, her Medicare insurance was giving her a better view than her own money did. She was overwhelmed by the unexpected beauty of her mountain view, which surpassed her initial expectations. She had found her silver lining, the hidden blessings of life.

Unfortunately, some people focus more on what they want, what they feel they need, to become complete or happier. I’m not saying goals are not good or important, but that there needs to be joy in the journey, smell the roses as they say. The author Charles Dickens said, “There is always something for which to be thankful.” Like I said, joy in the journey.

The chorus of Johnson Oatman’s hymn, “Count Your Blessings,” says, “Count your many blessings; name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord hath done. Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your many blessings, see what God hath done.” I love this song. It helps me regain my focus on my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and recognize how blessed I truly am.

It reminds me of the scripture in KJV 1 Chronicles 16:34 “O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good; for his mercy endureth forever.” We have so much to be thankful for. We’ll see the Lord’s hand in our lives if we can just take our earthly blinders off and look at things through the eyes of the Lord or even those of a child. How many of us have given a gift to a child that came from a large box, and in the end, they loved the box more than the actual gift? Joy and happiness are all around us, and we do not have to look too hard to find them.

So I return to the list of complaints sent to the tour operator with two that I feel apply to Alaska. First, “No one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared.” And second, “I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.” We can choose to see the good around us, to count the blessings of friendship, gratitude, and a million other things, or we can choose to focus on what might be wrong. I hope and pray that we will give thanks to the Lord and count our blessings as they are innumerable.

Dr. John Boston is a father, husband, grandfather, local physician, member of the Mat-Su Board of Trustees and Colonel in the Alaska Air National Guard. He believes in Christ and is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints