I try to spend some time each day doing a devotional that helps me in my spiritual walk. My church’s publishing house offers a small devotional guide called the ‘Upper Room’ that I have found to be an excellent guide for these quiet times that have become important to me. The daily plan gives you a passage of scripture, a short personal testimony from either clergy or private individuals and a closing prayer and thought by the particular author of the day. Today’s offering was especially moving and meaningful to me and I feel strongly about sharing my thoughts on what I have just read.

The devotional today reminds me of the answered prayer we never realize we are beneficiaries of each day. The testimonial tells of a mother's prayer for her son throughout his life that ask God to surround her son with people who will be strong Christian influences on her son as he goes through life. The son eventually goes away to college and is assigned a roommate who is going through a year of rehab from a drug addiction. The mother becomes distressed when she learns of the problems her son’s roommate has experienced before getting to college. Her first thoughts are of her prayers and the failure of God to answer her petitions. She changes her mind when her sons reminds her there is a good chance the roommate’s mother prayed the same prayer and that the son may be the answer to the other mother’s prayer. The devotional ends with a simple prayer that packs a ton of meaning.

“Lord, surround those we love with people who will help them to grow spiritually.”

The devotional got me to thinking about the people that have always and continue to bless my life in so many ways. From my very birth so many wonderful Christian people have been a tremendous blessing to me. To begin with my parents and entire family have loved and blessed me in so many ways that I could never describe it or even begin to tell what it has meant to me. The hometown I grew up in surrounded me with so many examples and roll models for a Christian life that to name any individual would exclude dozens more that I would be embarrassed to leave out. With my limited memory and sixty-two year old mind, any list of those that have had a strong and lasting positive influence on me is incomplete; so know that those mentioned are merely examples of hundreds who shall go unnamed.

In my world today I can think of so many, like my good friends Marilyn Sykes and Donna McAnnally. These two came into my life at a time when I first started my real search. Susan Estes keeps it real and shows me so often how really simple it is when we really get to the basics of Christ message. My buddies at my weekly Bible study, Wally Terry, Mike Free, Leo Bouchard and all the rest walk me through the scriptures every Tuesday, giving me the assurance and validation I need to know that this walk is not something I’m doing alone. My preachers, Terry Greer, Ian Butler and Ken Dunivant and so many more, both now and in the past, that recharge my batteries when they sometimes run so low. And then there are just so many friends that make my walk and search so easy. Jack Ozier, Larry Weaver, Donnie Lane, Dianne Barrett, Steve Blake and too many more to name, while never having to say a word show me by example, in so many ways, the type of life I aspire to live. My only sibling, Jimmy, whose life is such an example, is a true Christian brother.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that if my mother prayed the same prayer this mother in today’s devotional prayed, for God to surround me with people that would support me spiritually and in my walk here on this earth, then that prayer has been answered many times over.

My only hesitation is publishing these thoughts is that there are so many who have been a blessing to me that I cannot name each one. I am thankful for each one and thank God each day for everyone who has meant so much. The people named are merely examples, good ones but only examples.