Spanish 
Blessing 1 of 1 "Blessing" in the Spring 2016 VISION Newsletter
Over the past year, we’ve heard in divine services, discussed in small groups, and heard in For Your Journey videos about blessing. Before last year, blessing may have been thought of as an increase in your life from God. Today, we have come to understand blessing as anything in your life that God gives to bring you closer to Him.
Chief Apostle Schneider explained this definition of blessing in the 2015 divine service out of Woodbury. He said we can experience God’s love through the blessings He provides us with. With the Old Testament understanding of blessing, we would think that if we have a good job, a lot of money, or good health, then we must be richly blessed by God. And on the other hand, if we had no job, were poor, or were sick, then we were not blessed by God. Let’s work on moving beyond this black-and-white definition of God’s blessing by considering how God’s love is connected to the blessings He gives us. God loves us so much that He created a plan to restore our relationship with Him. This plan of salvation involved sending His own Son to the earth to ultimately sacrifice His life for our sins. Jesus didn’t come to give us a better life on earth, He came so that we could have eternal fellowship with God. When we think about how much God must love us so that He would send His Son to earth to die for our sins, then we can look at the blessings in our lives not as things of increase, but anything that might help to restore our relationship with Him.
What has happened in your life recently? You are the one with the power to decide if something is going to be a blessing in your life or not. God provides us with the strength to be faithful and everything we need to take the path that leads to Him. It is our decision to accept what God gives us and remain on this journey of salvation. Believe and trust in God’s love that everything in your life, good or bad, has the ability to bring you closer to Him.