Ten Things for Which I AM Thankful This Year

1. The ruthless faithfulness and insistent grace of God.

2. The love, grace, peace, faith, and joy persistently embodied in my wife.

3. The wonderful people that our children are now and are in the process of becoming.

4. The educational institutions that made a difference in my life, especially Miss Sylvia's Kindergarten, Gordon Grammar School and Mercer University.

5. The families of faith that have made a difference in my life (they all happen to be Baptist), in particular Midway in Barnesville, GA, Pritchett Memorial in Jugtown, GA, First in Macon, GA, Beech Grove in Owenton, KY, First in Adel, GA, Fosterville (TN), The Hill in Augusta, GA, and First in Fitzgerald, GA. Special mention also goes to two churches of which I was never a member but which hold a special place in my heart: Tatnall Square in Macon whose former sanctuary became Newton Hall at Mercer University and where we attended BSU meetings and chapel services and Leary Baptist in Leary, GA which is the home church of Debra Kay Johnson and in whose sanctuary on a glorious June day in 1978 she became my wife.

6. My growing awareness of the necessity of practicing the classic Christian disciplines.

7. Printed words in real books--the kind with pages and covers.

8. Football Friday nights in South Georgia.

9. Friends I have known, now know, and will know.

10. Pie.