The Troy Exchange Club hosted its annual “One Nation Under God Prayer Breakfast” Tuesday morning at the First Baptist Church Fellowship Hall.

Dennis Griffith, club president, said the prayer breakfast is held annually during November for the purpose of increasing appreciation of the nation’s rich religious heritage and as a reminder to trust in a higher power for guidance, protection and strength.

Local dignitaries, members of the business community, townspeople and Charles Henderson High School students joined the Troy Exchange Club members in their efforts to increase appreciation for America’s rich religious heritage.

The Rev. Richard Hayes, pastor of Hephzibah Baptist Church, was the keynote speaker and he challenged his audience to consider, “What is my life?”

Hayes said the people of today’s world are absorbed with self. Life is like a mist, he said. It is only here for a while.

“So, we should focus on something more than self,” he said. “But we are not. We, as a people, are self-absorbed. We should each consider ‘what is my life?’ Where will life take you? It could be to scary places, to painful places, to an emotional place, to a rewarding place. Where will life take us? Where will life take you?”

Hayes said a high cost has been paid for the freedoms that Americans enjoy. And, that high cost was not paid for people to have what they want, rather what they need.

“Too many have forgotten the cost that was paid for us,” he said. “Today, we are far away from the things that made us a great country. But we all have contributions to make toward making us a great country again. We must stand together and we must stand steadfast.”

Togetherness with a prayerful, positive attitude is the connection that is necessary for America to return to where the place of respect and honor that it once held worldwide.

The “One Nation Under God Prayer Breakfast” closed with the singing of “God Bless America” led by Kim Martin of Bush Memorial Baptist Church and the reading of the Exchange Club’s “Covenant of Service” by Griffin.