Leadership Tips & Training My Thankfulness Top Ten

If you are using our new materials for First Place 4 Health classes, you have no doubt been introduced to our “Top Ten” lists. Erin DuBroc shared her Nutrition Top Ten to ensure our success in the area of eating, and I introduced my Fitness Top Ten to help encourage you to keep your exercise commitments. As we enter into this holiday season, I want to share with you ten things that have made my personal Top Ten Thanksgiving list. I love Top Ten lists, because it’s just enough, and we have ten fingers and ten toes so here goes:

Coming in at number 10…

10. I am thankful for Thyroid tests. In October I had my Thyroid tested, really on just a whim. As a result, I have been diagnosed with Hypothyroidism. For the past year I have been very low on energy, which is one of the symptoms. I am now on medication to get me back to normal. What a relief! Now I can stay up past 9:00 p.m.!

9. I am thankful for my First Place 4 Health class. Just this week I received a sweet note from my friend, Jennifer Kirby. Just when I was feeling like the world’s worst teacher, she expressed her gratitude for me leading our FP4H class – just what I needed to keep me going!

8. I am thankful for my kids. I have four of the greatest kids in the world. God is constantly using them to teach me all kinds of things.

7. I am thankful for my church. It’s not perfect, but I have the opportunity to worship and work alongside a great group of believers every week. My son, Michael, is in a country where he is not free to worship publically and writes me how much he misses the Body of Christ.

6. I am thankful for old friends. Just recently, I had the opportunity to spend the weekend with five of my old college friends. One of them is home on furlough from Kenya. What a great time we had remembering and seeing how the Lord has been faithful all of these years.

5. I am thankful for the FP4H staff. I do not have an office in Houston, along with the other staff, but I can call or email any need I might have, whether it is personal or professional, and they are always right there on it! Thank you, Pat, Lisa, Debbie, Erin and Carole for all you do in my life.

4. I am thankful for freedom. This Tuesday we will have the privilege of going to the polls and voting and electing one of the most important and influential persons in the world. I am extremely thankful for the young men and women in our United States military who help maintain all that we hold dear in the great United States of America.

3. I am thankful for my car. This weekend I drove all the way up to Virginia Beach and did not have a single problem.

2. I am thankful for my Mom. It’s been almost two years since my Dad passed away and she has really hung in there. We have all really missed him, but she has gone on living her life and looking to the future to see what the Lord has in store for her.

Finally, the number 1 thing I am thankful for this Thanksgiving is…

1. My great salvation. In days like these, there is so little you can count on. Money markets and 401K’s have no security, but I am secure in the One who loves me and gave Himself for me. He holds me and the future in His hands.

This thanksgiving I challenge you to come up with your own personal Top Ten Thankful List. Enjoy the turkey, enjoy the football, and enjoy your family. We have so much to be thankful for in this land of abundance.


Vicki Heath



Vicki is our First Place 4 Health Director of Leadership Development.
She also is a Body & Soul Instructor and is on our two First Place 4 Health Aerobic DVD's. She is one of our First Place 4 Health conference speakers and leads Aerobics and speaks at our F.O.C.U.S Wellness Weeks each year.