Meaning & use
count your blessings
Last updated
Meaning
phraseidiom
To think about the good things you have rather than focusing on what is lacking or what has gone wrong.
Grammar: The possessive changes: count my blessings, count her blessings.
Patterns
- count your blessings
- count your blessings that something happened
After the storm missed our town, we counted our blessings.
You have a job and a home, so count your blessings.
She counts her blessings every night before bed.
Common combinations
- count your blessings
- Count your blessings; things could be worse.
- learn to count your blessings
- It took a hard year to learn to count my blessings.
- count your lucky stars
- You should count your lucky stars you were not hurt.
- count your blessings that
- Count your blessings that the repair was cheap.
Synonyms and how they differ
- be grateful
- It is plain and general, without the image of listing good things one by one.
- be thankful
- It is similar but does not suggest actively reviewing what you have.
- count your lucky stars
- It stresses good luck, specifically avoiding something bad, rather than ongoing gratitude.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: count your blessings or count your chickens?
count your blessings vs count your chickens
Count your chickens before they hatch means to assume success too early, a different idiom altogether.
Practice
A friend complains about a small problem but has a stable job and good health. You say, 'You should ___.'
Choose one answer.
Count your blessings means to appreciate what you have. Count your chickens is another idiom about being overconfident, so it does not fit.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “count your blessings”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.