Thanks

I know it sounds cliche to offer a list of things I am thankful for during Thanksgiving, but a sermon I heard this week mentioned telling people around you that you are thankful for them. Well some of those people won't read this, but I don't really write this for people to read...writing is therapeutic for me and a lot cheaper than seeing a counselor or playing golf or fishing or hunting.

Family has always been very important for me, even more so now that I have a family of my own with two spit-fire little girls! So I am truly grateful for my family. I have been blessed with parents who love me, grandparents who nurtured me, aunts and uncles and cousins who bless my heart in so many ways. I have the best set of in-laws ever, I mean they let us move in with them for 3 months while we renovated our house and I was incapacitated with a broken arm. My mind also recalls the people who have shaped my worldview in ways that they could never have known. Teachers like Ronda Johnson, David DeWitt, Tim Blackston, Donna Thaggard, Buddy Shurden, Fisher Humphreys, Calvin Miller, Sarah Gardner, Tom Scott, Rick Wilson, Scott Nash, and the list could go on. Mentors like Paul Bankson, Eric Ashley, Jason Mobley, Jeff Parrish, Sonny Stroud, David Maginnis, and of course others. Friends too many to name like Matt, Josh, Jay, Sarah, Tammy, Allison, Jason, Paul, Todd, Renee, Jimbo T., Jimbo B., and many, many others. I am blessed to serve the Lord and his church with the wonderful ministers and staff at FBC Statesboro! My "big kids" as Claire calls them are always a blessing to me...the ones past and present have taught me about God's love and grace in ways that you can't learn by reading about it or hearing others talk about it, only by experiencing it, thank you all for that!

The one person who has most shaped my heart other than Christ is my beautiful wife, Cyd. She knows me better than I know myself sometimes...Darlin', thank you for everything you are to me!

As you think about the things or the people that you are thankful for this week, don't miss the opportunity to say thanks somehow, someway.