When I was asked to write this story, I was not sure where to start. Our seven-year-old son, Sean, had just gone into the hospital with a blockage in his right lung…and to say the least, writing out a testimony became a bit of a distraction. As I struggled to get something written down on paper in the midst of this trial, I became intensely aware that I have not given true thanks to the Lord in a very long time. My wife and I are so busy with all of the demands of daily life; first and foremost all the responsibilities of having four small children, three of which are diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis.
Quite often, we find ourselves in the deficit column of coming to our God with true praise and worship. It seems as if the enemy is working overtime to keep us off balance.
The truth is we have so much to praise Him for. We began our marriage paying no attention to God whatsoever. We came and went with no regard to all the gifts and opportunities we had been given. Looking back, there was a measure of success that I had in the Country Music business... and yet, there was a frivolity to it all because of the absence of any reverence to God on my part.
“Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; …” Psalms 127:1
Be sure of one thing… when I was quite unlovable, He loved me. Even though I had ignored His call for years, He never stopped reaching out to me. I will, therefore, ask you to indulge me as I use this opportunity to say Thanks to my Heavenly Father.
Thank you, Lord, for the numerous ways that you reached out to me and kept me safe even before I answered Your call.
Thank you, Lord, for each of my many failed endeavors. Looking back on them makes me glad that you’re in charge, and I’m not.
Thank you, Lord, for setting aside the wife of my youth… she is a treasure. I’m sure I don’t fully appreciate what a gift she is. An excellent wife who can find? Her worth is far above rubies. (Proverbs 31:10)
Thank you, Lord, for the gentleman that we met at the truck stop on the way to Nashville who handed us a one hundred-dollar bill to help us on our way.
Thank you, Lord, for the man I gave a ride late one night when he ran out of gas, and the money he slipped into my pocket, which was exactly what we needed to pay the rent.
Thank you, Lord, for the prayer that Pat Robertson invited me to pray with him as I wept under conviction and asked Jesus to be my personal Savior.
Thank you, Lord, for that first prayer that Diane and I had together when we surrendered the course of our lives to you.
Thank you, Lord, for all the houses we looked at thirteen years ago and for the one that we were finally able to buy and for the next-door neighbors who bugged us to death about going with them to church.
Father, Your ways are perfect! I think about how the first church we ever went to was perfect for my wife and I. You saw fit to lead us to a place where our Pastor was a teacher, and our Sunday school teacher always encouraged us to daily be in the Word.
Thank you, Lord, for that night in front of the TV watching Ricky Skaggs talk about his faith in You while in the music business and being a ‘Fisher Of Men’ and a ‘Silent Witness.’
Thank you, Lord, for both of our Moms. They deserve so much more honor than we give them.
Thank you, Lord, for the many prayers of grandparents, aunts, uncles and others on my behalf.
Thank you, Father, for your hand upon us the day that Jeffrey was born with a hole in his intestinal tract.
Thank you, Father, for a wife who desired to quit work and stay home with Jeffrey, and for her workplace taking up an offering that amounted to over three thousand dollars at Christmas that year.
Thank you, Father, for the envelope we found on our dashboard one time with $350 inside and the words “He provides” written on it.
Thank you, Father, for the guy who showed up at our door and explained that You had told him to come and give us a check for two hundred dollars.
Thank you, Lord, for Marylynn Ellis who traveled from Brentwood to Mt. Juliet every work day for two months to baby sit with Jeffrey. She did this to help until Diane was able to quit work and stay home.
I praise you, Lord, for Sean being born without a hole in his intestinal tract even though he was also diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis.
I praise you, Lord, for Freddie Sayers taking an interest in me and talking me through hundreds of jobs while teaching me how to be a carpenter.
I praise you, Lord, for the hundreds of jobs that you have kept me safe on since then and for the trust that some really good people have placed in me as I worked in and on their homes.
Thank you, Lord, for the grace and forgiveness that I’ve needed to ask from some of them.
Thank you, Lord, for knowing that I needed some character building which, in my case, would come with swinging a hammer and learning the absolutes in reading a level and a tape measure.
Thank you, Lord for the song “The Work Of A Carpenter” that you gave me to write about Freddie Sayers as I drove home from his funeral…
Thank you, Lord, for the failed amino fluid test during pregnancy that caused us to lean totally on you for the results. The doctor called it a ‘bizarre’ occurrence.
Thank you, Lord, for your Word that talks about a time of abstinence in marriage that builds a stronger seed.
Thank you, Lord, for Katie being born and not being a carrier of the recessive gene that causes Cystic Fibrosis.
Thank you, Lord, for the favor that you’ve given us with Leslie Shepard and her college friends that have helped so much with our cause.
Thank you, Lord, for the man in Australia who heard Don Taylor talking about our cause on the radio and sent us fifteen hundred dollars.
Thank you, Lord, for leading me to record each of the songs on the CD and for providing all that was needed to get it done.
Thank you, Lord for the eight or nine months that Jeannie Mitchell prayed for the McDougals to be able to get into a better house that might… ‘help their children be healthier just one more day’. She didn’t tell us about her prayer until after we launched our project…ahouseformykids.com
Thank you, Father, for the wonderful group of friends I met at the Christian Country Music Association’s convention and for all of their encouragement since then.
Thank you, Lord, for the acre of land that was donated to our cause.
Thank you, Lord, for that night when the back of Jeffrey’s shirt caught fire and he was not even singed (although my hand was blistered from putting it out).
Thank you, Lord, for the forceful prompting you gave one night that caused me to get up and check on the kids. I am amazed when I think of how, just two seconds before that, Katie had fallen in the pool and was not able to swim. I got to her because of you Lord.
Thank you, Lord, for the night that Sean went to the emergency room with a bowel obstruction which needed surgery and for the next morning when the doctors declared that they could not explain why it was not there anymore.
I thank you, Lord, for the extra measure of grace you gave to my wife when she struggled through our youngest daughter being born and also being diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis…I could clearly see you working in our lives then…
There is so much more to thank you for…
I have shared these things for several reasons. One is my desire to be faithful at ‘shouting it from the rooftops.’ Another is that I want everyone reading this to know that my wife and I came to God’s throne with very broken lives, but our God is the one who “takes the years the locusts have eaten…and makes them new.” (Joel 2:25)
Notice also that not once did you read that God twisted our arms and forced us to come serve Him. He won us over with his love, grace, mercy, and long-suffering.
He tells us: ’Lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge the Lord thy God and He will direct your path.’ (Proverbs 3:5,6)
He sent His promise
He sent His Son
He sent His provision
He sent His Word
He sent His Love
One more thing…I wanted to remind you of a time when the God of creation reached down and touched your life. Stop right now and remember just one of those times and give Him praise and glory. He is able, and He is worthy!
I have boasted in no one but the Lord here and ten more pages could not hold the many supernatural things that He has done in our lives. I know that He has done the same kinds of things in your life. How do I know that?
Because that is just who He is… and He has prepared a place for us to be with Him where we can forever tell Him… Thank You Lord!