Consider the Blessings -- True Accounts of God's Hands in Our Lives

Today's review is written by a guest reviewer: my dear friend, Kel.

Are prophets really people? I know that they are real, and human, and have families and no doubt brush their teeth each day. Maybe they even have the occasional craving for peanut butter, and hearing a certain song shoots them from the middle of their sixth – or eighth -- decade back to being eighteen and enormously full of enthusiasm. I know all that. But are prophets real people? The kind of people who second guess themselves, who deliberately and stubbornly try to do what they have been instructed, prompted, taught?

I’ve wondered all of that for years now. Wondered for fifteen years, actually, since I converted and watched President Hinckley as my first ever I-know-it-in-my-heart-and-bones prophet, speaking in General Conference to me, to the Church. Is everything crystal clear for God’s anointed, I wondered? Is being generous, charitable, kind and loving as easy to them as breathing?

I found my answer in Consider the Blessings – True Accounts of God’s Hand in Our Lives by President Thomas S. Monson. A talented, engaging public speaker, President Monson also communicates beautifully in this book. Each section is a different vignette, deftly bringing to life a moment from his personal or church life to gently demonstrate lessons about service, love, following promptings, being God’s hands here on earth, and – always - being a disciple of Christ.

I was a little concerned when I read the blurb that this would be so sweetly pious it would make my teeth hurt (and my spirit grow dejected in comparison), but I really should have known better. What I have learned, and come to more fully appreciate, is that President Monson really is a person. A person who has lived every day of his life – like me – and has the opportunity every day – like me! – to consider what to do and say to those around him. He has chosen to be a disciple of Christ, and Consider the Blessings shares how that decision has been made manifest in his life. It is in the ‘ordinary details’ of President Monson’s stories that we are shown that God is in the smallest details of our lives, and how He waits for us to be His hands for others, while caring for us in exactly the same way.

President Monson writes with clarity, humility and humour, gently encouraging readers to live more deliberately, in tiny little seemingly insignificant ways to serve others and the Lord. In reading Consider the Blessings I have realised that I have the opportunity and the responsibility to approach my daily activities as a disciple of Christ. President Monson (and no doubt other prophets in the past) lives life one second at a time, one person in conversation, one letter and one prayer at a time, and recognises the power in those moments. Consider the Blessings has made me recognise the power I have in my everyday ordinariness (peanut butter cravings and all) to choose to see God’s hands, God’s blessings in my life, and be those same hands for those around me in whatever way I can.

Rating: A beautiful dose of Vitamin Encouragement – Highly Recommended.

Title: Consider the Blessings – True Accounts of God’s Hand in Our Lives

Author: President Thomas S Monson

Publisher: Deseret Book

Note: I won an e-copy of this book and read it from my phone. Consider the Blessings is a gem to have on your phone – each segment is a quick read wherever you may be and a lovely boost to mood and intentions. That being said, and after seeing the layout and details of the print version, I will definitely be buying a physical copy as well.