Hello friends, family and brothers and sisters in Christ, 

As I write this, the temperature outside is about seventy three degrees. There is a slight breeze blowing and there’s not a cloud in the sky. It’s been a beautiful day with lots of warm sunshine and little to no humidity. Fall is my favorite season in Alabama. It’s a relatively short amount of time where the weather feels just right—not too hot and not too cold, cool in the
morning and evening and comfortably warm during the day. When I go outside on a sunny Fall day, I can easily feel God’s goodness and kindness towards me and many others. And in the midst of a world that too often can feel broken, cruel or depressing, these kinds of embodied reminders of the goodness of God are important. The older I get, the more I have begun to see the value of embodied experiences of good gifts that come from the hand of our good God. If we can slow down just a little in the midst of our frenzied lives, we can see these gifts all around, gifts that can fuel deeper feelings of gratitude and joy. The feel of my wife’s warm hand inside of mine, the smell of fresh chocolate chip cookies my daughter makes, the feeling of a football leaving my hand as it sails towards my son—these and so many more are reminders to me that even in the midst of a stressful, busy life, a life where I struggle and suffer, goodness still exists. And these are gifts I have not earned, gifts that exceed what I have merited, gifts that ultimately come from God, the One who whose love propelled him to give the gift of His Son to our world.

I’m also grateful that I continue to love the counseling work that I get to do at Daymark. I feel honored that for another year now, people have continued to entrust some of the hardest
parts of their stories to me. My counseling clients continually inspire me. They are a courageous reminder to me that with God’s help and love, we can persevere and even grow through
enormous struggles, pain and heartbreak. Sin and trauma are robbers that seek to steal our sense of security, sanity, clarity and hope. This year is another reminder to me that connection is God’s means of bringing healing to the sin and trauma that have touched each of our lives. And again, I’m grateful that the connections that are cultivated through counseling can be used by God to further someone just a little bit farther along in their journey of healing and transformation.

Thank you to all of you who have been with me in this journey. Your generous support has enabled me to continue to offer financial flexibility to those in need of Christ-centered counseling. Only because of your generosity I have been able to maintain Daymark’s mission of offering Christ-centered counseling to whomever God brings our way regardless of someone’s financial situation. I see a number of clients who simply would not be able to get the help they need without the generosity of people like you who believe in our mission. If you don’t currently give, would you consider either giving a year-end tax deductible gift or commit to giving $75-$100 monthly for this coming year?  Support for Daymark can be given through sending a check to Daymark Counseling, P.O. Box 59768, Birmingham, AL 35259, or making an online payment by clicking "donate" below.  You may also set up monthly donations through your bank by contacting our office administrator Katy at admin@daymarkcounseling.com

I hope you all can slow down enough this coming Thanksgiving and Christmas season to see the good gifts that our good heavenly Father gives each of us every single day. And I hope
you have restful Thanksgiving and a Christmas season where you can experience just a little more gratitude and joy.

Grace and peace,

Eric