There is one thing you can always count on: When you include God in your life, positive things happen.

A few years ago, a group of business friends and some of our local judges starting meeting on Friday mornings for what became a weekly prayer breakfast.

From those breakfasts came the idea to hold a legislative prayer breakfast every January, so that legislators and citizens can come together and ask for the Good Lord’s blessings on the upcoming year.

Those early get-togethers were low-key affairs, and with the help of then-Recreation Director Tommy Hailey, the group began to grow larger. Four years ago, the local Kiwanis and Rotary clubs offered their help, and from there, the prayer meeting has grown to what it is today.

This past week, it was announced that year’s prayer get-together will be on Friday, Jan. 10. The gathering of local folks and their elected representatives will begin at 7 a.m. with coffee and a light breakfast. The guest speaker this year, DeKalb Superintendent of Schools Michael Thurmond, will be featured at 8 a.m.

We encourage you to attend the prayer breakfast at the First Baptist Church in Covington. We encourage you because in 2014, we need to turn back to God as a community and as a nation. And we need to ask that God bless our elected officials with the wisdom to make fair and wise decisions that keep us free and safe.

The annual prayer breakfast is free and open to the public.