Count Your Blessings (#1)

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I'm literally going to be counting my blessings. I have been blessed so much in my life and it would be absolutely unconscienable of me if I did not tell the world (or the three of you who read this) about those blessings. I thought about creating a whole new blog for this, because honestly, new blessings come all the time and there's already a lifetime of them to write about. But, for the sake of brevity alone, I will share with you my top 10. Today, #1: Blessing #1. I have a Creator who knows me, loves me and wants a personal relationship with me. I had heard a lot about God growing up. After my father died when I was 7, I remember Rosie Forehand and Barbara Newport--my Sunday School teachers--giving me my first Bible at First United Methodist Church in Three Rivers, TX. I learned bible verses. I sang the songs. It was there that I developed an appreciation for hymns. But as much as God was wanting to talk to me, I did not want to talk to him. He had taken my parents away, after all! I kept God at arm's length for years...though every once in awhile I would chat with him. "God, if you're real, then..." When I was 16, I was living at the South Texas Children's Home (which will be mentioned in a later blessing.) It was there that I finally came to know Christ. Where I accepted him. And he accepted me. I have made so many mistakes over the years. I have wandered so far away at times. But he has not. The God who created me in my mother's womb has never left my side. He knows my thoughts. He knows my heart. He knows my shortcomings as well as my accomplishments. And through it all, he still wants a relationship with me. That is truly a blessing! How about you? Have you taken time lately to really count your blessings? Try it! You may realize just how blessed you really are!