Hymn Study: Count Your Blessings

Count Your Blessings

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Updated 11/11/22

As I sat down to decide what hymn to study this month, I knew that I wanted something that focused on the concept of thanksgiving or giving thanks. We are called to be thankful every day, but this time of year is a time when I like to refocus on all that I have to be thankful for. The day that I was researching hymns had honestly been a pretty tough day, and it was amazing how much listening to all the songs of thanksgiving lifted my spirits.

Story Behind Count Your Blessings

Count Your Many Blessings was written by Johnson Oatman, Jr. in 1897. During his lifetime, he wrote over 5,000 different hymns. Many of those hymns are still sung today. The tune was composed by Edwin Othello Excell. He was popular in his own right and composed music for over 2.000 songs. He is most well known for this song and his arrangement for John Newton’s Amazing Grace.

Hymn Study Plan

Our plan is to listen to various versions of this hymn as an enjoyable way to become familiar with the words of the hymn. I will also have the children complete the hymn study fact sheet to learn more about the background of the hymn. Each day, for one week, they will complete the copy work pages for the hymn.

Through these activities, they will internalize the hymn in just a few minutes of work each day. If your family is musically inclined, there is sheet music listed below. They could learn to play the song on an instrument of their choosing.

Nature Study

We will also be combining nature study with our hymn by taking a hike and making a list of all of the blessings that we see along the way. We can remember how blessed we are that God gave us flowers to enjoy, trees for wood, birds to listen to, plants to eat, and all of the other wonderful things we find as we hike.

Counting Your Blessings

In addition to our regular monthly activities, I think this hymn and this month where we focus on giving thanks gives us a great opportunity to literally ‘count our blessings’. I encourage you to talk to your family and choose a way to list your many blessings.

Some of you may be most comfortable with a private journal format, while others may prefer something more family oriented. You could create a thankful tree where the leaves each have blessings on them, a thankful pumpkin, or just a jar where you collect slips of paper with things you are thankful for.

My daughter found a cute fall container and placed it in the middle of our kitchen table. Each day we all write down one thing we are thankful for on a sticky note. She wants us to take them all out on Thanksgiving and read them aloud to remind us of our many blessings.

Other Activities

One additional activity that I plan to do with my children is a blessings walk. Walk down your road (if it is safe), through your neighborhood, on a nearby trail, or even just through your yard. As you walk, find as many blessings as possible and thank God for them. You may thank him for the butterfly you see flying, your neighbors, your home, flowers, the warm sun, and whatever else you see to be thankful for.

Nana, over at You Are An Artist, also has this really neat mixed-media sunflower art for clubhouse subscribers in her hymn study course. She also has a wonderful podcast on being thankful: Color Me Thankful, for everyone to enjoy.

Other Hymns of Thanks

While we will focus on this hymn this month, there were so many wonderful songs about giving thanks that I wanted to share more with you this month. I am including a list of songs with their links below if you want to enjoy more songs of thanksgiving this month. I would love for you to share with me in the comments what song you think of when you think of giving thanks or thankfulness.

I pray that this hymn study can be a blessing for you during these trying times and that by counting our blessings, we can lift our spirits and be a light in the darkness.

Background and Sheet Music

YouTube with Lyrics

YouTube Performance

Download Your Freebies Below!

Hymn Study Fact Sheet

Count Your Blessings (November Copywork)

Other Songs About Thanksgiving:

We Gather Together We Gather Together

Come ye Thankful People Come

Give Thanks

He Has Made Me Glad (Ska Version)

He Has Made Me Glad (Regular)

God is so Good

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