By Bill King
Director of Missions Tuskegee Lee Baptist Association
Dear God, thank you for waking me up again this morning. Thank you for another night of sleep and rest.
Thank you for turning the earth again today, so my part of the world could enjoy the warmth and light of the sun. Thank you that so far nothing hurts, but I haven’t moved much yet. Thank you that I am still able to move, even when it does sometimes hurt.
Thank you for allowing me to live in a place with indoor plumbing, bathrooms and a glass of clean water by my bedside each night. Thank you for allowing me to have another day of life in this world.
I apologize that we have messed up so much of Your great creation. Our world, even our great nation of the United States, has a multitude of problems. Thank you for those you have already helped us through those problems. I pray you will guide us through those with which we continue to deal.
We thank you for our leaders, even though we don’t always agree with their decisions, and we pray that you would guide their thoughts and decisions. Although our nation is terribly divided these days, I thank you that we are still the “United” States.
‘Help us be united’
I do pray that you, oh God, would help us to become more united in harmony. Help us to accept the fact that we are not all alike, in many ways, and don’t have to be. Thank you that we are not all alike. Help us to understand that we don’t have to agree with one another on everything, but help to live together peaceably in spite of our differences. Thank you for the peace we do have, and we pray that more people would realize that violence rarely settles problems. Help us to seek your will and ways.
Thank you that this terrible virus that has plagued us for almost two-years now, finally, seems to be on the run. Thank you for scientists and doctors who have created a vaccine to help us avoid getting sick, and medicines to help us get well when we do get sick.
Thank you for nurses and hospital staff, including my own daughter, who have worked at the front lines during this war. Thank you for protecting her and others who have not gotten sick while they helped those who were. Thank you for the healing you brought to so many who did get sick, but survived. I do pray for the families of the 50 million people across the world who have died from this terrible disease.
As I come to my final weeks as the director of Tuskegee Lee Baptist Association, thank you for the 15 years I’ve been allowed to serve there. Thank you for the churches and pastors there, as well as those across Alabama, who have given me numerous opportunities of service.
Last but certainly not least, thank you for my family and for allowing us to have another year together and with good health.
Thank you for Jean, my wife of 46 years, and for our daughter Ashley, her husband Justin, and their son Drew, the best grandson in the world, in my humble opinion, of course. Thank you that you have kept us all safe and well during another year of this terrible virus.
Thank you, God, that you love us more than we can even imagine. Help us to love you more. I pray this in your son’s name. Amen.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
