I have 600 words here...

     This month, I turn 60. When I say that out loud, my first thought is, “That’s nuts!” Six decades 
have come and gone just like that. Like many of you, I look back on my life and wonder how it all 
passed so fast. Of course, fast is a relative word when it comes to the passing of time.
     Because of the jobs I’ve had and my varied life experiences, I’ve had the opportunity to visit with 
thousands of people. If time allows, I enjoy talking to people and hearing their life stories. I 
really do.

     Where are they from? What do they do for a living? What are their hobbies? Do they 
believe in God? How does that affect their decisions in life? These are just some of the questions 
I ask in conversations with people I don’t know well. Again, when time allows.
     One thing that is hard not to do is make comparisons about life. And I know, in meeting so many 
people in my 60 years, I’ve had an easy life, relatively speaking.
     Many people have had hard lives and have had to overcome much adversity to bring peace and happiness into their world. I’ve had a lot of things go my way for one reason or another.
     My parents provided me with a stable foundation early in life. My childhood memories are from the 
late 1960s and through the 1970s. Dad was a Methodist minister in Mississippi. Mom was a 
homemaker.

     I have three younger siblings. Our parents loved us, provided for us, and gave us a sense of security. They taught us the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount. I gave my life to Jesus Christ when I was 13 in 1976 at summer youth camp.
     You just can’t overstate the importance of a stable, loving home life for children and how that 
affects the paths they will take when they go out in the adult world to make it for themselves. 
When I meet people who had a bad childhood, yet overcame that to go on to a happy and successful 
life, I have great admiration for them.
     In most cases, those people will say to me, “But God.” Then they tell me how God intervened some- 
time in their lives, they yielded to His will, and He set them on a path toward blessing and 
spiritual contentment.
     Speaking of God intervening, the Lord brought Alison Hardin into my life in the spring of 1979. We 
became high school sweethearts, dated five years, and married in July 1984. Our daughter was born 
in 1987, our two sons in 1989 and 1993. They all have multiple children of their own now, and we 
live near and support each other. That is very unusual in today’s mobile world.
     Six hundred words to remember 60 years! I think I’ll just write a book about my life. I have 
hundreds of stories that my children, grandkids, or future generations might find interesting 
someday when I’ve
moved on from earth to heaven. With the exception of a few negative experiences, it’s been a fun 
run so far.
     Life expectancy for the average American male is 75 years. Maybe I didn’t need to look that up. Is 
it really useful to know that I’m down to 15 years if I make the average?
     Well, I was an average student in school. But the grandkids maybe don’t need to know that. I want 
to be an inspiration to them. And my grades were rather, well, rather uninspiring.
     I guess I’ll just have to use selective memory when I write that book.