Time to talk about my faith for a few moments.

Having been raised in a Christian environment, it was common for our family to attend Sunday church services and pray a “ritual prayer” at dinner time and before going to sleep.

It was a good habit.

However it wasn’t until my early 20’s that my faith became real to me and not just a series of routines.

Fast forward to the past dozen years.  I’m back at the denomination that I grew up with, but because of my personal relationship with God that began over 30 years ago, it’s different than it was as a teenager.

Sure there are times in the church service that prayers are being said by the pastor with the congregation agreeing with an Amen.  But my faith goes beyond the church walls into my daily life.

Sometimes the prayers we say are for things.  Pray for the health of so and so, or pray for the safety of this group as they travel, etc.

Sometimes the prayers we say are general, like for our leaders, or specific for an answer to a problem or situation.

But do you also including thanks for the blessings in your prayers?

It’s a habit that I’ve tried to develop over the years.  There are so many times that tragic things don’t happen to us, we need to thank God for his protection against the unknown at the end of each day, and count it as a blessing.

What inspired me to write this is a reflection this week on what happened this month in my life and the life of a new co-worker.

My wife and I traveled about 2000 miles earlier this month and returned home safely.

This past Tuesday my co-worker Jason and I were the last to leave our office when the phone rings and Jason answers.  Our co-worker Dan called about 15 minutes after leaving for the day, said he was in a car accident and he had to get off the phone because the police had arrived.

I finished what I was doing and left to find Dan.  When I arrived at the scene of the accident, his car was down a hill off the side of the road and he was taken to the hospital.

I arrived at the hospital before his wife and was there as Dan was talking to the Doctor.  Apparently Dan lost control of his car as he was rounding a curve and the car flipped over at least 3 times end over end before resting upright.  Dan ended up in the backseat, opened the door, called 911, his wife and then the office.

I expected to see a bloody mess in the E.R.  Instead I saw my friend and co-worker with a bump on his head, a band-aid on his finger and some scrapes on his leg and shoulder.  He was alert and talking and in shock.  I left after talking with his wife and father-in-law.

Turns out Dan also broke his collar bone and had surgery on Friday to insert a plate to stabilize it so the bone would heal.

Surgery went well we were told and he’ll be back to work next week.

The police officer told Dan that the accident should have been a fatality, based on the extent of the damage to his car.

It wasn’t and that is a blessing.

Now I know that there are some who might think negatively regarding this.  Dan and his family have to replace his car, and there’s the medical bills and so on.

But as I spoke with his wife Tuesday after the accident along with my wife and co-workers, we see the blessing side of all of this and that has been part of our prayers this week.

How about you?  Do you only pray for certain things or outcomes?  Or do you also pray thankfully for the blessings all around us?