When more than one source tells me to try something, I think God is on the move. That’s why I am blessing everything around me.
This starts when Mindful Christian Year got some comments ridiculing Christianity. What should I do? As Jesus said in Luke 6:28: “Bless those who curse you.”
In Christian mindfulness, we practice the presence of God as we focus on the here and now. The act of blessing those who hated our faith strengthened my practice. It kept me even more focused on both God’s presence and the present moment.
So what happens when you ask God to bless everyone? It elevates our relationships with those around us while keeping us in continual communication with God.
In his book, “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality,” Peter Scazzero said the healthiest relationship between two human beings is an “I/Thou” relationship. Drawing on the work of Martin Buber, Scazzero writes that I/Thou relationships are those in which we recognize that the other person is created in God’s image. We know that God loves this person.
Most of the time we are in “I/it” relationships, he says. We do not connect the people we meet with God. We see them as objects, usually objects getting in our way. To routinely and continually bless people can change that.
As Pierre Pradervand writes in “The Gentle Art of Blessing,” the simple practice of praying for blessing for all those around you is a worthy goal. While Pradervand does not write from a purely Christian perspective, he does make a good argument that the Bible would embrace this practice.
Pradervand also does not distinguish “our blessing” from “asking God for His blessing” on others. I think that’s very important as we practice Christian mindfulness.
Ways to Practice Blessing
Nonetheless, Pradervand has some good suggestions. Here are some of them as well as those I’ve received from other Christians:
- When praying for a person who is in the dark place, pray for blessings for the person’s body, mind and soul.
- Ask for God’s blessing on your to-do list or schedule every day. Especially ask Him to bless the people that you are going to meet.
- When passing people on the street, in the office, in public transportation and everywhere else, ask God to bless them.
- When talking to people, ask God to bless them, including their relationship with God, their health, their relationships with others and their work.
- When walking in an area, pray for God’s blessing on its government, teachers, health care workers, children, spiritual leaders, patients, prisoners, etc.
- Ask for God’s blessing when something unexpected or unpleasant happens.
Let me know if using this practice helps you to practice the presence of God in the present moment.