Welcome to Season 5 of the Excel Stillmore podcast. I'm still your host, Chris Emerson, and I'm here to encourage you in your walk with the Lord, and I'm glad you've joined.

The program continues to be sponsored by Cunningham Financial Group. John is a good friend, and he's helped me and my family in everything

from stock and mutual fund investing to annuities, life insurance, and retirement planning.

I certainly commend him to you if you have needs in any of those areas. You can reach him

at 205-326-7364. Thank you again for your ongoing encouragement and support. Let's get started.

Welcome. I'm really thankful you're listening today. I know how things can be in November and December when routines get thrown out the window.

And there's lots of traveling

and the kids are out of school. It's hard to fit in normal stuff like podcast listening. Every year

in November and December, the listenership falls off for a little while and then bounces back in

January. So I know it doesn't come as naturally to listen during the holiday season. So thank you

for going out of your way to do so.

And while we have the holidays on our mind, I am prayerful that you will have safe travels

wherever you go, that God will be with your family, and that our wonderful king will give

you opportunities to reflect his glory wherever you might be. And if you would be willing,

I would like to ask you to pray the same for me

and for my family. So here's something kind of cool. This episode launches on Monday, December 11th at 5 a.m.

I'm recording it well ahead of time. Right now it's Saturday, December the 2nd. But on launch day,

Monday the 11th at 6 a.m., my family and I should be on an airplane headed west for a California

adventure. We planned it like six months ago. We're going to fly into the LA area and then eight days

later fly back out of San Francisco. Hopefully all of that is working out great, and if you have any

California experiences you'd like to share or recommendations, then feel free to reach out to me.

Somebody out there is going to reach out to me and say, Chris, you should not tell people

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