About the Author

Stephanie Bryant is the co-founder of @incourage and a podcaster at the #JesusLedAdventurePodcast. She owns a Marketing & Business Coaching company. She is passionate about guiding you to your promised land and personal brand therapy. She enjoys spending her days with her husband and their miracle daughter, Gabrielle, on #BryantFamilyFarm....

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
Find more at DaySpring.com
(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
Recent Posts

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Running headlong through life, it’s easy to miss the celebration of God’s blessings. I want to go back and re-read and re-think the Beatitudes based on your insights.
    Thanks, Stephanie!

  2. Stephanie,
    I agree, I think it goes against our nature, or at least mine to dwell in the blessings…to stand still long enough to really soak them in and not put myself on a guilt trip for enjoying something, someone, or some experience that has come from God’s hand. If I have something that someone else would love to have, I often take on a sort of apologetic mode. Or, I worry that for some reason the blessing will be pulled from my hand. That’s not God’s nature; I have to remember.

    I am learning, through this waiting period with a difficult surgery, that dwelling on my blessings is a safe harbor. It’s so easy to get caught up on what hurts, what’s difficult, how impatient I am, what I’m missing out on, that I overlook the blessings right in front of my nose. But, those blessings are the very things that God wants me to cling to, because in clinging to them, I am clinging to grace, mercy, love, and hope – all the things His Son went to the cross for me to enjoy. To deny them, to me, would be denying Jesus’ sacrifice and I certainly don’t want to do that. You’ve really got me thinking about slowing down and enjoying the blessings in my life. Dwelling with you….
    Blessings,
    Bev xx

    • Bev,
      Isn’t it’s so hard when we are slowed down to almost a stop? I am praying for a “good healing” for you during your Blessing Season.

      And thank you Stephanie for putting my blessings , both good and hard ones , into focus in light of my Fathers Great Love !

      • Anne,
        Thanks for your prayers for “good healing” as I have literally been brought to a stop, as you say. Your comment inspired my most recent post today on my blog….I called it “The Blessing Season” – your comment gave me the inspiration along with Stephanie’s post!
        Blessings to YOU my friend,
        Bev xx

  3. I’m either looking for the next big thing, guilty over the goodness God has provided or I’m not quite comfortable with His provision. I believe it’s because we live in a comparison society. Thanks to you, I’m going to work harder to acknowledge my blessings in a way that honors God. I love the Sermon on the amount and will reread again now…it’s a “how to live” one.

  4. I’ve been praying a while on this matter…
    Thank you for sharing what He is teaching you!!!
    Hugs

  5. Yours insight and encouragement that it’s OK and right for us to dwell in our blessing, well it was a word directly for my heart. This post resonates loudly in my head as a familiar path I take. I’m smack dab in a season of deep and rich blessing and struggling to feel fully present in the now, instead of my impulse to run ahead into more work. I’ll be chewing on this for days. Thank you!

  6. Thank you for this today. How fitting that this is what you thought to write about on today! In the past I have cried, prayed, begged, given up, believed again and have succeeded on having children. The one thing I knew God put me on this earth to do. With his help and love I was able to get pregnant! Thank you Lord. It might not have been the easiest thing for me to do since I had to go through infertility treatments, dozens and two more last attempts which both took. (After trying to have a baby for about 3 years) God blessed my husband and I with a healthy baby boy! Bed rest for 10 weeks in the hospital with broken water God touched many lives. My son was born 7 weeks early. His brother’s embryo frozen for another two years and God once again blessed our family with another baby boy! Bed rest for 2nd child but at home and with gestational diabetes…. God gave me the strength I needed to follow doctor orders and stay still on the couch or bed. Thank you Lord for the two blessings you gave to our family. Today is my first son’s birthday… 12 years old and healthy. Praise God for his mercy, grace and love to help me fulfill my dream of being a Mother. What a wonderful reminder to sit and enjoy his blessings… children, sports, band activities, Cub Scout events, friend’s birthday parties… life is crazy but I will be sure to remember his blessings he poured down on my family. Thank you Lord… thank you…

  7. OH MY!
    I know there has to be a lesson in here for me. I am not feeling the prompting of “Rest”, but then this was such a hugely obvious reply to my secret thoughts this morning that there has to be a lesson in there for me…..

    This is EXACTLY what I have been struggling with lately–the idea of being blessed. Of a good measure, poured until overflowing, in my lap. It seems a shameful secret–to be blessed when others suffer :(. I hate others suffering and yearn to help. I have wanted to know what I am to do, how quickly I can go bless others, how to not dwell in the blessings too much lest I be overrun by the enjoyment of them and forget God. The church does not seem to talk about “Ok, here is what you do when the Lord has just poured out into you”, except in terms of financial wealth. But what if the blessings are not financial but are a good marriage, great kids, plenty of food, ducks at your feet, hummingbirds at the feeder, fish in the pond, a compliment from a stranger, and shiny hair? What do you do when your are so blessed but they are not really “sharable”? I think therein lies the key–sometimes the blessings are for YOU individually and the Lord makes it so they are not things you can give away so that you MUST look at them and marvel and His goodness and mercy to YOU, to gaze at Him and really, truly know you cannot do anything to match His mercy and gifts and love. There is no offering enough, there is only Him and His blessings.

    I still don’t understand it, tbh. Today I was writing that even my trials were blessings–I could SEE how they were. Sometimes what seems like trials are also gifts.

    But sometimes the gifts are not hidden in fire, but are wrapped in bows! 🙂 I cannot thank God enough, and I don’t know what to do with these blessings–I was so happy to have a bit of ill health earlier this week because then I had I “struggle”! I knew that I should “work hard” and “overcome” and “still show Jesus when I didn’t feel good”. I got to DO something “holy” 🙂 Silly, isn’t it?

    But as my body heals, and I see His grace and mercy poured out LAVISHLY and know I do not deserve any of it, but still secretly wondering if I did something right (mistaking reward for grace) and also being a little afraid the other shoe will drop, but being ok with that in a way because, again, I don’t deserve this much, and wondering how to give more, do more, thank Him more, and knowing I can never do enough, but not wanting to be a blessing hoarder, etc, etc, etc…..

    Thank you for giving words to my thoughts, for daring to speak that sometimes the Lord. Just. Gives.

    • I love your thoughts on how God gives us blessings that cannot be shared so we have to look upon them and marvel at his love for us. The ‘just for you’ blessings. When I take the time to recognize them, they remind me just how much he loves his children. I know they are there more than I realize and its this awareness I’ve been working on lately. My gratitude journal helps me to see them and to praise him, sometimes to tears, for his goodness and mercy.

    • Sdr, love what you said about the just-for-you blessings, also. I wonder how many blessings I’ve re-gifted or not ever used because of false guilt? Thank you for sharing your thoughts!

  8. Stephanie,
    Your thoughtfully written post really got me thinking,( thank-you). How many times have I needed to be stopped to accept my blessings? I should of been able to answer none but sadly that’s not true. From this day forth I will try to be more accepting of His gifts, and not just by uttering gratitude.
    Romans 5:5
    And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
    His blessings can also come from hope. Hope that all will be well, and it is. Hope gardens will recover, and they flourish. Hope family & friends will be okay, and they get through. ‘There is no shame for hope’, and we can gratefully accept His blessings.
    After a negative experience on Mother’s Day I wrote, ‘Do something, do something, be it for the good’. I hope I will always follow through, and would most gratefully accept it as a blessing.

    I hope that you have a blessed day all,

    Penny

  9. I wonder if it is not able to enjoy the blessings or just being able to rest in HIm. I find myself knowing things but sometimes it’s so hard to even rest and soak in the blessings and healing. Just breathe His love today.

  10. Stephanie, thank you for putting words to thoughts I’ve often had. I’ve been guilty of re-gifting blessings before. I’m starting to realize enjoying His blessings fuels me for whatever comes next. Thank you for this post.

  11. Stephanie,

    We rush through life wanting to do/be more Christ like and miss out on blessings. Most don’t realize how rich we are because we compare ourselves-outwardly to others. In retrospect we need to stop and count the many blessings God has given us. Our thoughts should be on thanking God for these blessings. Often times when I get down I write out a thankful journal. I list ALL the things God has given me from Heaven & sins forgiven to small things like heat, websites, etc. It helps me realize how blessed I am. I am so loved & blessed that Jesus rejoices over me with singing: Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you; He will quiet you with His love. He will rejoice over you with singing.

    Blessings 🙂