making sense of "blessings"

A friend has been pondering what it means to bless and be blessed, so "this Bud's (blog) for you." @ftr

A good place to make sense of blessings is Ephesians 1: 3. This is one of the most intriguing verses in the Bible, mainly because it use three derivatives (separate Greek words) of the word "bless."

"Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." 

The first use of "bless" is how we view and approach God. In this case "blessed" means we give God our greatest adoration. The second and third refers to how God blesses us. Here the word for "blessed" means to bestow or to give to another freely of Himself. Then finally "blessing" means the privilege and provision of what belongs to the blessor (in this instance Heaven).

To apply this in human relationships how would we make sense of the notion that in a relationship we both bless and are blessed by each other?

To bless another person we freely give from what we have that is uniquely us and the other person is blessed by receiving the privilege of knowing us deeply and the joy that comes from that intimacy.

Certainly someone could make this statement mean what they would like, that's the post modern culture in which we live. However, this interpretation is anchored in thousands of years of tradition around the meaning of words rooted in "bless".

After all, "if a word can mean anything, then it means nothing!"
Hope this helps pondering on making sense of blessing and being blessed :-)