Count your blessings

David Bailey, General Manager

Some of you may know the hymn “Count Your Blessings” written by Johnson Oatman Jr. in 1897. The meaning of the song is simple and clear: The best way to fight discouragement is to look for the blessings in life.

That can be hard when, as human beings, we are wired to think about our problems and fixate on the negatives. We also tend to think we can work through these issues on our own without the help of anyone else, including God.

We’re stubborn that way. We prefer swimming around in our pools of problems rather than looking for a safe bank to pull ourselves out. As the hymn tells us, we can often find that bank if we’re just willing to count our blessings.

Those blessings come in many forms. It might be strong parenting that guides us through our youth or loving family members who help shape our lives. But this month I want to focus on the mentors who come to us from outside our family.

For myself, I feel like I’ve been blessed with several great mentors. It’s almost as if they have been placed at strategic stages of my life. I look back in my memory and can see the impact they had in guiding my steps at key moments along my journey.

James R. Shaver was one of those mentors. When I began my cooperative career over 30 years ago, he had already served on the South Alabama Electric Board of Trustees for 12 years. He was instrumental in shaping my understanding of what we call the cooperative way.

Jimmy was the board president when I was hired as general manager. I remember calling him to discuss an upcoming board meeting. He didn’t want to talk over the phone, so he invited me out to his chicken houses.

Now, we all know that chicken houses don’t have the best aroma and I certainly wasn’t dressed for a visit to one. On top of all that, it was quite a warm day, but I drove on out as he asked. When I got there, he told me to pull up to a pecan tree between the chicken houses.

To my surprise, the tree provided relief from the sun and the space between the houses created a nice breeze. Believe it or not, you couldn’t even smell the chickens. I thought it was a miracle. But that was the way Jimmy preferred to meet and talk about cooperative business. Not in a board room — though he could handle that environment, too — but out in the community or on the farm.

Earlier this year, we lost Mr. Shaver. The board lost him as a strong president. The members lost him as a wonderful representative. His family lost a great husband, father and grandfather. The Goshen community lost a supportive friend. And I lost a dear mentor.

That’s because Jimmy truly believed in the cooperative principles and our responsibility to the members we serve. I don’t know how many times we discussed a new project and he would ask me, “Now David, how is this going to affect the member?” He never lost that member focus.

He also questioned everything, so you had better have your ducks in a row when you brought him a proposal. That detailed approach made Jimmy a great advocate for our members and it’s an attribute I hope to carry on in my own career.

So when I look at the chorus lyrics of the hymn “Count Your Blessing, Name Them One By One,” I will name Jimmy Shaver as a blessing because I know God put him in my life as a mentor and I’m not only surprised but Thankful for that Blessing. Thank you, Jimmy.