10/14/2026
My greatest successes didn't come from my best plans. They came from falling to my knees.
I was honored to share that this morning when I led the invocation at Gulf Coast CEO Forum , where Paul Epstein taught us how to WIN MONDAY®. Paul went from heading sales for Super Bowl XLVIII to the 49ers front office to building a movement around one habit: win the start of your week, and you win the year.
All of us in that room, who meet monthly, are here to leave people and places better than we found them. At Coharbor Electric , we say it a little differently. Make homes, businesses, and hearts better, and the Lord will do the rest.
Here's what I prayed over the room:
Good morning. Before we pray, I'll tell you something most CEOs won't say out loud.
My greatest successes did not come from my best plans. They came when I hit rock bottom, when no logic, no strategy, no plan, and no advice was working. I fell to my knees and surrendered.
And it wasn't a one-time surrender. It's a continuous one. I used to wake up and reach for the news and the markets. Now I wake up and open my Bible for wisdom. Every morning I say, "Lord, this is Yours. Thy will be done. I am just the vessel."
At Coharbor Electric, one verse is on our website and on our walls: "Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord." Colossians 3:23. We believe that if we go in and make homes, businesses, and hearts better, the Lord will do the rest.
Let us pray.
Lord, Solomon, the man who built Your temple, wrote in Psalm 127: "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain." Every person in this room is building something: a company, a team, a family, a legacy. Build it for us, and through us.
We confess that we love control. We love our forecasts, our strategies, and our five-year plans. This morning, we lay them down. Our hearts may plan our way, but You direct our steps.
Make us vessels. Let the people who work for us, buy from us, and live next to us see something in how we lead that our accolades can't explain.
Whatever we do today, in the boardroom, on the job site, at the kitchen table, let us work heartily, as for You and not for men.
Bless this food, this fellowship, and every conversation at these tables. Let us leave here holding our plans a little more loosely, and Your hand a little more tightly.
Thy will be done. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Anyone who is a parent can appreciate this: I forgot my business cards and my name tag today, but I had sticky notes and a squishy. Can you tell I have young kids?
- Melissa, Owner of Coharbor Electric
