Last week while browsing through Facebook, I ran across a random thought that had been posted.

It read something like this: When you are counting your blessings, if what comes to mind is your house, job, car, bank account, or any other type of physical item, you are missing out on what a true blessing really is.

To be honest, this hit home with me as I also tend to look at physical – or perhaps we should say earthly items – when thinking about things that make up a large part of our everyday lives.

I do believe we should be thankful that we have been given the opportunity to buy a home, been born with, or trained and educated to perform job skills, and thankful to have reached a certain level of success in our lives.

More importantly, would we still feel blessed if all of those material items were suddenly taken away?

We could lose our home in a disaster, our car could be wrecked and we could lose our jobs.

Perhaps what I am leading up to is that those things are all temporary and manmade. True blessings could also be thought of as ones that cannot be bought with money. The physical assets could pass away in a vapor just as the morning fog disappears as the sun rises on the eastern horizon.

True blessings are those that cannot be stolen or destroyed by man. Many, and I would dare say most of us, are not always even deserving of receiving them because so many of us lead relatively comfortable lives. We likely fail to recognize what we really have.

“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. “ Matthew 6:20 (NIV)

This verse gives credence to what we should count as true blessings. What would we have to be thankful for if all our physical “stuff” was to suddenly disappear?

Our kids and the joy they bring to our lives, the love of our family, special friends who would be there for us no matter what, a committed marriage with someone who loves you just the way you are, and most of all a Heavenly Father who loves us and wants us to share His heavenly home with Him for all of eternity.

Those treasures, friends, are true blessings. I need to start recounting mine.

Randy Garrison is the president and publisher of the Hartselle Enquirer.