Today I Choose to be Favored – How to be Favored

You have no idea how very blessed I am. I was graced to be born in the US, a first-world country. I didn’t earn this; I was gifted with this circumstance by pure chance of birth.

I was blessed that my biological mother made the difficult decision to place me for adoption. I was fortunate that my adoptive father was amazing. I was even blessed that my adoptive mother wasn’t more troubled than she was.

And I was gifted with natural resilience—the ability to rebound when down, to find a way through when others might not. None of this was something I achieved or deserved. It was all grace.

I don’t believe in luck alone. I believe in being blessed by grace, by good people, and by opportunities I’ve been trusted with. Today, I choose to honor that by paying it forward.

Understanding True Favor

Being blessed isn’t about being chosen for special treatment by the universe. It’s about recognizing the countless ways—large and small—that circumstances, people, and timing have worked in your benefit throughout your life.

Sometimes this grace looks like dramatic interventions: being adopted into a loving family, surviving an accident, getting an unexpected opportunity. But more often, it appears in quiet, daily forms: good health, educational access, emotional stability, or simply being in the right place when opportunity presents itself.

The challenge isn’t in receiving these blessings—none of us controls the circumstances of our birth or many of the positive things that happen to us. The challenge is in recognizing them and understanding what they call us to do.

Recognizing Your Own Blessings

When I reflect on my adoption story, I see layer upon layer of grace I had no hand in creating. My birth mother’s courage to choose a difficult path. My adoptive parents’ decision to open their home. The timing that brought us together. The legal systems that made it possible. The society that supported the process.

This kind of recognition isn’t about gratitude alone, though gratitude is important. It’s about honestly acknowledging that your current life is built on a foundation of advantages—some earned, many given—that not everyone receives.

Your blessings might look different from mine. Maybe you were born into financial security, or gifted with natural talents, or surrounded by people who believed in your potential. Maybe you had access to education, healthcare, or opportunities that opened doors you didn’t even know existed.

Perhaps your grace appeared as resilience through hardship, the strength to overcome obstacles, or the wisdom that comes from navigating challenges others never face.

The Weight of Being Blessed

Recognition brings responsibility. When you truly understand how much of your success, happiness, and opportunity rests on circumstances beyond your control, it changes how you move through the world.

This isn’t about guilt—guilt serves no one and helps nothing. It’s about stewardship. Being blessed with advantages, opportunities, or abilities creates an obligation to use them wisely, not just for your own benefit but for the good of others who might not have received the same gifts.

When I think about my adoptive father’s influence on my life, I don’t just feel grateful—I feel called to be the kind of person who positively impacts others in return. When I consider the resilience I was somehow born with, I think about how I can help others develop their own strength.

Paying Grace Forward

Being truly blessed means understanding that your gifts aren’t just for you. They’re resources meant to be shared, multiplied, and passed on to create positive ripple effects in other people’s lives.

Mentorship matters. If you’ve had good guides in your life, become one for someone else. Share the wisdom you’ve gained, the connections you’ve made, the lessons you’ve learned.

Open doors deliberately. Use your access, your network, your voice to create opportunities for people who might not otherwise have them. The same systems that benefited you can benefit others when you’re intentional about inclusion.

Share resources generously. Whether it’s money, time, expertise, or simply attention, giving from your abundance creates abundance for others.

Speak up and show up. Use your position, your voice, your presence to support people and causes that matter. Your favor becomes leverage for positive change.

Grace Multiplied

The beautiful thing about acknowledging your blessings is that it doesn’t diminish them—it multiplies them. When you use your advantages to lift others, you don’t lose what you have. You create more opportunities, stronger communities, and deeper meaning in your own life.

My story of adoption isn’t just about what I received—it’s about what that receiving calls me to give. Every door that opened for me becomes a door I can help open for someone else. Every piece of wisdom I gained becomes wisdom I can share. Every advantage I was given becomes a tool for creating advantage for others.

This is how grace works: not as a finite resource to be hoarded, but as an expanding circle of possibility that grows larger every time it’s shared.

Today, I choose to be blessed not just by recognizing what I’ve received, but by actively participating in extending that same grace to others.

Because being favored isn’t about deserving special treatment—it’s about becoming a conduit for the kind of positive change that blessing makes possible.