Do you feel blessed? I’m not talking about only being the beneficiary of something that has brought you a tangible happiness. Let’s take a minute and talk about what a blessing is. You know, it’s easy to confuse a blessing with an affirmation, but they are different. An affirmation is positive feedback for something that we have done. It focuses on an outward, visible demonstration of character or behavior. A blessing, on the other hand, is a verbal assurance from someone that’s important to you that you are loved unconditionally. No matter what you do, it says, I’m proud of you and I want to be with you. So an affirmation praises you for what you do. A blessing says, I love you no matter what because of who you are. People who have not been blessed experience at least three negative consequences. The first is sadness, because they don’t know if they’re wanted or if they’re important and valuable. Second, unblessed people are usually angry. The folks who are supposed to love them unconditionally didn’t. And now they struggle to express love to those they should be blessing. Unfortunately, it’s true. Hurt people, hurt people. Self-sufficiency is the third consequence of not being blessed. When we feel as if we don’t have anybody, we determine that we don’t need anybody. We’ll do it on our own.
Now we don’t want these three things to be lived out in our spouses or our children’s lives. So how do we bless them? Well, start by using their name. Say, “Bruce, I love you no matter what. There’s nothing you can ever do that will cause me to stop loving you because you are my son. And God gave me to you to show you how much he loves you and will never stop loving you no matter what you do. You are my son, whom I love and are well pleased. I love you no matter what.”
You know, the desire to be blessed may be our deepest, most primal longing of our hearts. So make it a point to bless your loved ones today.
