{"id":620,"date":"2016-07-04T05:00:12","date_gmt":"2016-07-04T10:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/?p=620"},"modified":"2016-06-23T22:30:47","modified_gmt":"2016-06-24T03:30:47","slug":"counting-our-blessings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2016\/07\/counting-our-blessings.html","title":{"rendered":"Counting our blessings"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I was little, I remember learning that you can tell the age of a tree by counting the rings on the inside. Of course the tree had to be cut apart in order to tell the number of rings. I wonder if wrinkles on faces are the same way?!<\/p>\n<p>I like to think we can use these tree rings as ways to count our own blessings, not just our age. Each line can stand for a person who has come into our lives. Or they can stand for memories.<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/files\/2016\/06\/DSCN0016.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-612 alignright\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/388\/2016\/06\/DSCN0016-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"DSCN0016\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s important to consider some of these lines from the perspective of faith. Consider each line as a time you knew in your heart how much God loves you. Or consider the line as a specific prayer you prayed and felt was answered.<\/p>\n<p>Share in the comments what you count as your blessings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I was little, I remember learning that you can tell the age of a tree by counting the rings on the inside. Of course the tree had to be cut apart in order to tell the number of rings. I wonder if wrinkles on faces are the same way?! I like to think we&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":591,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Counting our blessings - Through the Lens of Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2016\/07\/counting-our-blessings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Counting our blessings - Through the Lens of Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When I was little, I remember learning that you can tell the age of a tree by counting the rings on the inside. 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I like to think we&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2016\/07\/counting-our-blessings.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Through the Lens of Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-04T10:00:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-24T03:30:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/files\/2016\/06\/DSCN0016-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"eelliott\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Counting our blessings - Through the Lens of Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/throughthelensoffaith\/2016\/07\/counting-our-blessings.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Counting our blessings - Through the Lens of Faith","og_description":"When I was little, I remember learning that you can tell the age of a tree by counting the rings on the inside. 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