{"id":2214,"date":"2012-12-18T22:31:25","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T05:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/?p=2214"},"modified":"2012-12-18T22:31:25","modified_gmt":"2012-12-19T05:31:25","slug":"blessings-are-to-make-you-happy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/2012\/12\/blessings-are-to-make-you-happy\/","title":{"rendered":"Blessings are to make you happy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christmas is coming! The goose is getting fat and so are we as we gather round the Christmas tree.<\/p>\n

I am blessed to have you all as my readers. I am blessed in so many ways. I know you are too.<\/p>\n

And there are so few days and there is all the stress of what must be done. I have presents to buy and expectations to fulfill. It is easy to feel obligated and guilty. I have been so blessed, and I am probably not living up to my blessings.<\/p>\n

Also, many people do not have the blessings I have. I ponder that and it can feel pretty bad. What do I do with this undeserved blessing? I have no right to expect the good things in my life. I mean, I think in particular of the blessing of my extraordinarily wonderful child. Some people have lost their child. There but for the grace of God go I.<\/p>\n

I could be fearful, and guilty. I find myself feeling that way a lot.<\/p>\n

But that’s no way to live. To know I am blessed should make me happy. I should rejoice, and give good love to those around me. If I feel fearful and guilty \u00a0about my blessings, when I encounter other people who don’t have my particular blessing and are in fact suffering, I am more likely to scuffle away as if their tragedy were contagious.<\/p>\n

But if I can be happy, and trust in my present blessing I could be generous to those less fortunate. And isn’t that how I want to live? Isn’t that the world I want to live in?<\/p>\n

After beginning with fear and guilt over my blessings, I realize I can just be happy. \u00a0And at peace.<\/p>\n

That’s what I’ve been thinking this week. I wanted to share.<\/p>\n

I join the angels chorus:<\/p>\n

Glory to God in highest and on earth peace and goodwill towards men<\/p>\n

Peace be with you and all my goodwill<\/p>\n

Merry Christmas!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas is coming! The goose is getting fat and so are we as we gather round the Christmas tree. I am blessed to have you all as my readers. I am blessed in so many ways. I know you are … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-random-thoughts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2214"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2216,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2214\/revisions\/2216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/writtenbymurphy.com\/wonderblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}