A prayer for my birthday: "On the occasion of recognizing my 72nd year, I pray I will dwell on God’s awesomeness and the blessings He has bestowed on my life. May I continue to serve Him with the remaining time He grants to me. Amen."

It's Thursday, August 16, 2018. Another year has come and gone. For me. Today marks the 72nd year of my sojourn here on the planet. I pause to express my thankfulness to God for His provision in allowing me to experience another year. A couple of years ago when I hit the ‘three score and ten’ (70) I received a greeting from a dear lady regarding the well-known verse, "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away." (Psalm 90, Verse 10, A Prayer of Moses the man of God.) Her sentiment went something like this, "Bro Al, you have reached the age provided by the Lord, now everything in addition to this is a bonus." It almost sounded like I was living on borrowed time, but, let me be clear, I am fully aware that my very next heartbeat is provided by God. So many have helped me along the way and I am a very blessed man. Blessed indeed! Amen and Amen. I am looking forward to a family gathering this upcoming Saturday.

I've been dealing with the diabetic challenge since 2006. That was one of those life-changing discoveries. While it is not on my front burner all the time, it is something that does the incessant background gnawing each and every day. It most likely will get me. Someday. Mark Lowry used to say his favorite verses in the Bible were those that said, "And, it came to pass..." He said he liked those because they reflect something that didn't come to stay, it came to pass. Well, thus far, diabetes, for me, did not come to pass because it has pretty much taken up residence in my body. Even so, I could not be more thankful to God for the early diagnosis and the wonderful assistance I have had in being able to do a mostly reasonable job of managing this condition. Twelve years, and counting, and thankful. I've had the best medical assistance anyone could ask for. I consider all of these blessings to be God-provided. And, as you can tell, on this, my 72nd birthday, I'm still here to talk about it. Praise the Lord! Amen.

One of the greatest blessings of my time here has been the companion God provided to me. Including our time of dating, we've been in this life together for more than 56 years and if we make it to December, we will mark the formal celebration of our 54th wedding anniversary. I would like to say it has all been like a fairy tale where we lived happily ever after, but, alas, we've had plenty of challenges and hard times, but, in the end, she is the wife of my youth, and she is a gift from God. I thank God for our three sons and their family, our lineage. Sure, we are on our knees often praying for them all, but, what a privilege it is to have the family God has provided to me. I count the calling God has on my life to study and share God's word to be another wonderful provision in my life. I thank Him for the successes He has allowed me to experience in the workplace, for the people I have known, and the influence of those who helped me much along the way and who now await our arrival to our heavenly home. I'm also thankful that I continue to be able to get up and go each day, and, that I am able to enjoy working at the job I have. So much to thank God for. Hopefully, you get my drift here. He alone is worthy to be recognized and praised for His provisions. May God bless each one. Amen. ...More later.