can't possibly prioritize 1000 gifts that I have been given ... but what I can do is categorize them into smaller 'packages' and create a bit of order.
I honestly believe that every good gift comes from Above. It started with a Creator who loved me enough to send His Son for my atonement. The Son who willingly hung on the cross that I might be reconciled with the Father ... And His drawing of my spirit which allowed me to accept the greatest of every gift. So I'll start with the gifts that are from my Lord.
1. Salvation - It will never cease to amaze me that He drew me ... we attended church very rarely when we were young. My family was in constant turmoil ... my life was chaos(alcoholism, abuse, involvement in unhealthy relationships) but when I was twelve I heard the first "invitation" I can ever remember and responded immediately. That unlikely drawing has caused me to search more deeply into the teachings of Romans 9.
2. Prayer- Even as a young child I couldn't help but talk to God. I wish I could say that I grew a ton as a believer when I was a teenage and young adult(most of those years were spent just trying to survive), but it was primarily upon becoming a mother that I have developed that Love Relationship communication with the Father. Oh, I prayed before that, but it was often prayers of "what should I do now"{note the 'now' part of that statement} or "how could You let this happen?" ... not a pouring out of my heart. I would contend that it was likely the moment of becoming a mother that gave me strength to rediscover my heart.
3. Praise- Psalm 138
1 A Psalm of David. I will give You thanks with all my heart; I will sing praises to You before the gods.
2 I will bow down toward Your holy temple And give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.
3 On the day I called, You answered me; You made me bold with strength in my soul.
4 All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, O LORD, When they have heard the words of Your mouth.
5 And they will sing of the ways of the LORD, For great is the glory of the LORD.
6 For though the LORD is exalted, Yet He regards the lowly, But the haughty He knows from afar.
4. Worship- Not long ago a friend said, "If you didn't have music, you would dry up." And for me, music is the center of my worship. I'm working on developing other outlets for this practice. But, again, this love of music isn't something that was a legacy of my family ... it was something that my soul cried out for even as a child.
5. Fellowship- The Lord has been so faithful to me in this area. I have a group of moms that I am blessed to pray with regularly. I have a gaggle of women friends that I can call on at any moment and I can depend upon their prayerful input (never underestimate the value of that quality in a friend). I have a couple of folks I have been transparent with and they have graciously agreed to hold me accountable in my walk with the Lord ... and I have one person who knows me well enough to have access to every area of my life(more on that under Titus 2). Fellowship has been a vital component of growth in my spiritual walk. I've had times when I was subjecting myself to world-views which were less Biblically sound than others. During those times, I was giving Satan a foothold that was at best unwise and at worst brought death in a variety of ways.
Proverbs 27:17 ---
Iron sharpeneth iron; So a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
6. The Word- I find the more I read, the more I hunger. The more I hunger, the more I wonder. The more I wonder, the more I believe. The more I believe, the more the Love Story develops ... and the more I read.
7. Conviction- This is a concept that's taken a while to 'warm up to' for me. Conviction doesn't mesh with the warm feeling we want when we talk about the God of Love. So often we leave out the part of God's justice. It has been in the times of conviction in my life that movement has occurred. He *****s out the parts that don't reflect His image in me ... He requires confession of those things which separate me from Him ... He grows in me the Fruit of the Spirit which He uses as confirmation of my relationship with Him ................ and it all begins with conviction..
8. Titus 2-
3 Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, 4 so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, 5 to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.
When I was about 13 I had a revelation that the only way out of my circumstances was God. I prayed constantly that God would give me a better life. I buried myself in sports, in friends, in books and in school ... and from those experiences I developed an idea of what life could look like. My friend Robin's mom let me watch her ... bake, pray, fight, set boundaries and love her family. Growing up, that was my picture of a family. (Interesting that I never had grand visions of what a dad looked like in the family ... hmmm ... another blog, another day).
But on the other side of town, literally, when I was 13 ... a young teacher prayed a prayer of thankfulness for the Godly teaching she had been exposed to and in turn prayed for an opportunity to pass that teaching along to someone else.
As only God could have orchestrated, I ended up in her Home Economics class the following fall. She was my inspiration for becoming a teacher. She kept me more centered in High School than she will ever know. She prayed me through the dark nights when I believed my world would crumble as the Lord revealed portions of my childhood I could scarcely give words to ... and sat beside me in the midst of deafening silence when words were neither accessible or adequate. She and her husband were the first to meet Randy (and the only people who asked hard questions) when we were dating. She was the first person I called when we miscarried. She was the first person I called when AJ came into the world. Our first mother/son road trip was to their house. My most painful comfessions to any person have been made to her first. My relationship with the Lord is stronger because of her willingness, not to mention the willingness of her mother-in-law, to live out the Titus 2 principles with complete transparency. And the iron sharpening iron promise.
It was years into our relationship before she would make the connection between her prayer and my presence. Some time later when I realized the connection between the pleas of my heart and her influence.
This fall our familes spent a week at the beach ... lives forever connected by a prayer. How much our families love each other will very likely come up over the course of other gift posts!
9. A Bible Teaching Church -What a blessing that is at this time in my life!
10. Communion- There was a time when I didn't take communion because I felt so unworthy of the sacrament. It was only in my admission of how unworthy I am that I began this journey of appreciating what a gift I've been given in this opportunity to remember.

Only 990 more to go ...