Heavenly Father I praise You for the faithfulness of my grandparents and parents in serving You and praying over me. I praise You for leading by example on how to serve You. I praise You for every person who You brought into my life as I was learning to become an adult who would make me think, read and learn who You were. I thank You for all the people I have served with over the years and how their lives would push and encourage me to be stronger in my faith. How we were able to encourage each other and how we still encourage each other.
Holy Spirit I ask You to bless Ken and Marty for being my teen leader and getting me to see You in a different life. I praise You and ask that You would bless Linda for helping me as I took over as song leader when I was 15. I praise You for Daisy who always had a kind word, occasional $20 dollar hand shake and for how she always found time to give me a hug and check on my grandmother. I praise Mrs. Finch for opening her home for Bible studies and letting me sit in her kitchen and eat cookies. I praise You for Mary who would open her house and introducing me to the Blackwood brothers who visited her. I praise You for Marv who was a janitor at my high school, he was always looking out for me and always had a humorous joke to lighten my day. I praise You for Mr. Lodden who believed in me as an athlete but first of all as a person. For his guidance through High School. I praise You for many of the teachers and coaches I had through High School who pushed me to be better than even I thought I was.
Holy Spirit I also ask that You would bless Dan and Judy Shinnabarger for their encouragement and teaching me how to be a leader in prayer and giving me the opportunity to speak on Sunday nights. I praise You for two grandmothers who taught me to love reading the Bible and how to pray with sincerity and guidance from You. I also praise You for my wife who has been in my corner and pushed me to succeed and to reach out to people. I praise You for my children who have opened my eyes to a bigger world and have done many things that I only thought of doing when I was a child.
Holy Spirit help me to be the mentor and leader in other people’s lives. Help me to live a life who demonstrates You in every aspect. Help me to reach people and teach them all about You and faith. Let my prayers be so that people will want to join in with me and pray and believe. Let me teach people how to pray so that they can move on from me and teach others how to pray. Help me to always be helpful so that others will see and want to help too. Thank You Lord for all the people who You have brought into my life to motivate, inspire or support me. In Jesus’ name, amen.