There’s a youngish check-out clerk at the nearest Kroger store who will invariably respond to “How are you?” with “I’m Blessed.”
I feel awkward and don’t have a good follow-up comment. I try not to seem annoyed, but it probably isn’t working.
Other clerks at the same store have used the same line at times.
Do you run across this sort of thing? If so, what’s your reaction? Your response?
I haven’t encountered it, but I would be sorely tempted to respond, “Well, I’ll be damned!” with an air of astonishment.
Beautiful!
I did have a co-worker once, a very serious practicing Christian, who would get mad anytime anyone ever said “Good luck,” to her or in any other context. If you said “Good luck,” she’d snap “There’s no such thing as luck. I only believe in blessings. So wish me good blessings.” But she was such a bitch, I no longer wanted to wish her anything good at all.
She was the same woman who played her contemporary Christian music station on her desk radio all day, and the rest of us in the office couldn’t listen to music. The religious nature of the music didn’t bother me because I tuned out the lyrics, but that stuff is just BLAND – like rock with no balls, soul with no soul, Kenny G and Michael Bolton without their badass attitudes. Once when she went to a meeting, I changed the station to something inoffensive like oldies, and she got mad when she came back. Again, she snapped at me, “What, does my music offend you as a Jew?”
I said “No, it offends me as a musician.”
Then why do you keep asking?
You’d think that, after all that serious practicing, she’d start to get the hang of it. 
I have never encountered it.
It would not bother me. I was raised on religious tolerance. If she feels blessed, good for her. Why not smile and say “good for you”?
What would you say if she said “I’m great”?
OTOH, BBVL,
I think I would behave as you do and stop wishing her anything good at all, although I would not wish bad things for her.
I thank you for this from the bottom of my Jewish, musicological, misanthropic heart.
Reasonable question. Two answers.
He: How are you, sir?
I: Fine, you?
He: I’m blessed, thank you.
I:
It just strikes me as excessively convinced. That’s all.
It’s definitely smug, and smugness annoys me, whether it’s based on one’s (self-perceived) spiritual state or one’s (self-perceived) whatever state.
I’m guessing I’d respond with a vaguely puzzled “how nice for you.”
A better reply?
“Others would disagree.”
Is it because this guy seems to be advertising his Christianity in an otherwise ordinary snatch of conversation by saying “blessed” that gets up your nose, Zeldar? Dunno if I would be so irritated. I think I’d just put it down to being a quirk, and move on.
As a non-Christian, I occasionally say “I’m truly blessed” if I’m feeling really grateful for good stuff in my life. To me, it’s a description of appreciation of good fortune, nothing much more than that.
Now, my serious contribution to this thread. I was under the impression that it’s (a) impossible to know if you’ve been blessed, and/or (b) prideful to the point of sin to to presume that you’ve been blessed. You can’t know, so you must live in a manner which you hope will cause G-d to favor you.
I don’t run across this sort of thing much. People here tend to respond, “I’m fine, thanks.” People in my old neighborhood would have said that or “I’m well, thank G-d.”
It is fairly common for people here to wish others “a blessed day.” Still annoying, but not as presumptuous (they aren’t blessing me, after all, just expressing hope that Someone will).
Well, IME a lot of folks say that they’re blessed, because they’ve been told to count their blessings when they’re feeling angry, afraid, or on the pity pot. For many people I know it’s not a christian thing, it’s just a shorthand way of them reminding themselves (and others) that overall their lives are really pretty good and that they should stop sniveling and appreciate it.
Oh, I don’t wish for bad things for anyone (well, practically anyone, but not for her). She got herself fired by throwing one too many hissyfits and walking away from her desk to blow off steam (for an hour or two). This was a Judicial Assistant, by the way – the personal secretary for a Judge, based in a courthouse. Extremely unprofessional behavior, needless to say.
I agree. I knew a woman who was a practicing Wiccan and she used the phrase regularly. It isn’t limited to being a Christian - and doesn’t even need to be limited to being a believer.
Sorry Lou! I didn’t mean to imply that you were wishing bad stuff for her. I definitely did not get the sense that you were.
It isn’t unusual for Haredi Jews to respond to “How are you?” with “Baruch Hashem” (“Bless God”). I think the proper response to that would probably be an agreeing “Baruch Hashem”, so if you don’t want to be a smartass (although smartassery is always fun), you might just say “Well, bless you.” If you’re in the South, try “Bless your heart”.
Well, I’m in the South all right. But I don’t subscribe to the “bless your heart” = “eat shit and die” formula that so many older ones do. If I were to say “bless your heart” I believe I would crumble to the floor as if a bolt of lightning had struck me. It’s not that irritating, either.
Maybe I should just throw up on his register like Linda Blair. See how blessed he really is.
I never heard “have a blessed day” until I move here, where I hear it regularly. It’s particularly common on answering machine messages.
As far as I can tell, it’s pretty much an African-American thing and more cultural than religious. Doesn’t bug me at all. At least someone is wishing good things for me.