Twenty-five years ago, Miriam said “I do,” and my life changed forever. Words escape me when I try to express what she means to me. Every day, she chooses to love me and be my best friend. There is no one in this world I love loving more than her. There is no one I’d rather spend time with than her! Happy Anniversary, Miriam, to the woman who is every bit as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. The first 25 years flew by way too fast. Let’s slow down and savor the next 25 a little more. ❤️

My fire pit is cooler than your fire pit! 🔥🎸 Tennessee is the Three Star State, and no state in America has given the world more great music than ours! From the mountains of East Tennessee to the streets of Nashville and Memphis, music is in our blood! God bless Tennessee!

My girlfriend bought me tickets to see @DerekAndSusan for my birthday. I’m convinced Derek, Susan, and their band are some of the finest musicians touring anywhere in the world today! If they ever come anywhere near you, GO! You won’t regret it!

This! GBO VFL

Rep. Hicks and I have been out knocking doors for Rep. Lankford in Clarksville, and I can tell you one thing, Michael could not be stronger!  BTW… if you ever find yourself over that way in Clarksville, go eat some wings at Mr. Billy’s. Trust me on this one. They are amazing!

I have thought a lot about the Clancy case, and I keep coming back to the same place. Three children are dead. Three innocent children whose lives were taken by the very person they should have been safest with. I can have compassion for someone who is struggling emotionally or mentally. I can believe that a person can be deeply troubled, overwhelmed, and in desperate need of help. But, compassion for someone’s struggles cannot require us to forget the victims. Emotional struggles cannot become a common defense for killing innocent people. If we as a society dissolve that line, we are opening a door that will certainly lead to more victims. Capital punishment was not the only option here. There is an enormous distance between executing someone and holding them criminally accountable for taking three innocent lives. Yet here we are with a hung jury, and I struggle deeply with the precedent and the message that sends. Somewhere along the way, the perpetrator has become the victim and society is asked to see her primarily as one who is suffering, while three children who can never speak for themselves risk becoming almost secondary to the story. I also cannot help but wonder what message we are sending to the next generation. Justice has to mean something. Personal responsibility/accountability has to mean something. The lives of innocent children have to mean something. Can’t we be compassionate toward mental and emotional suffering without abandoning accountability for the choices people make and the lives they destroy? I also cannot escape this thought: If those had been the jurors’ own children, I have a hard time believing that jury would have remained hung for very long. When you picture your own child in the place of those three little ones, the conversation changes very pretty dang fast. My heart can break for a mother who was clearly struggling while still breaking first for the three children who lost everything. Those two things are not mutually exclusive. Mercy matters. Compassion matters. Mental health matters. But so does justice. If emotional suffering becomes enough to excuse the intentional killing of innocent people, we we will have to accept that the consequences of that precedent will not end with this case. Three children lost their lives. Whatever else we discuss, they should never become the afterthought.

My friend @GlennJacobsTN wrapped up eight years of service as Mayor of Knox County, and I was privileged to be a part of the celebration honoring him. Glenn has been incredibly successful in life, but one of the things I’ve always admired most about him is that success has never changed who he is. No matter the title, the position, or the spotlight, he has never become too important to be reachable or too big to be relatable. He is genuinely a great friend and public servant.

Y’all could get @flocksafety cameras to be taken down yesterday if you told democrat ran cities Flock uses Data Centers to store info.

The world mourns the loss of a Queen, but Dolly never wore a crown, because she never forgot where she came from. She belonged to Tennessee, but somehow she also belonged to everyone of us. She gave the world her music, her laughter, her bigheartedness, and a little piece of the Smoky Mountains everywhere she went. She showed us all that you can rise from almost nothing to the very top and still remain humble, kind, faithful, and proud of home. Today, Tennessee has lost our greatest daughter, and the world has lost a light that simply cannot be replaced. Long live the Queen!

To those who consider themselves “abolitionists” when it comes to abortion: To my friends who believe mothers who seek abortions should be charged with a felony, may I respectfully offer a few thoughts from Scripture? I believe abortion ends an innocent human life. I have spent much of my adult life fighting to protect the unborn, and I will continue to do so. But I also believe that our pursuit of justice has to reflect the character of Christ. Justice and mercy do not compete in Scripture. They are companions. The prophet Micah tells us to “act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). Paul reminds us that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). If every person born and unborn is made in the image of God, then our response to abortion should defend innocent life while also offering hope, restoration, and forgiveness to mothers. That is why I would never support felony charges against women who have abortions. I believe those who perform abortions and profit from ending innocent life should face serious legal consequences. But I believe the mother should be treated differently. In many cases she is frightened, pressured, deceived, abandoned, or convinced that abortion is her only option. She needs someone to tell her the truth before the abortion and someone to help restore her afterward; not a felony conviction that follows her for the rest of her life. If abortion has already taken one life, I do not believe the answer is to permanently and completely damage another with a criminal record. Justice should protect life while leaving room for repentance, redemption, and restoration. One of my favorite stories in Scripture is the woman caught in adultery. She was dragged before Jesus by a crowd determined to see her receive the harshest punishment the law allowed. She stood ashamed, humiliated, and broken. Jesus responded with words that have echoed through history: “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone.” One by one, her accusers walked away. Jesus did not excuse her sin. He confronted it. But He also restored her dignity, extended mercy, and called her to a new life: “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more.” The pattern of the Gospel is truth followed by grace, conviction followed by restoration. So I would simply ask those advocating felony charges against mothers: Could you be the one to close the jail cell? Could you look a frightened young woman in the eye and believe imprisoning her is the justice Christ calls us to pursue? Could you do so while remembering your own need for God’s mercy? Finally, I would encourage my fellow Christians and conservatives to choose our battles wisely. Our goal should not simply be to make statements that generate applause from those who already agree with us. Our goal should be to save lives and advance policies that actually protect the unborn while helping mothers choose life. Let’s invest our energy in supporting pregnancy resource centers, strengthening adoption and foster care, encouraging fathers to accept responsibility, and creating communities where women know they are not alone. Those are the kinds of efforts that save lives and change hearts. We should never stop defending the unborn. We should never stop speaking the truth about abortion. But we should also never stop extending mercy, hope, forgiveness, and restoration to mothers. Jesus never lowered God’s standard of righteousness, but neither did He close the door to redemption. Neither should we. The Gospel never asks us to choose between protecting the unborn and extending mercy to the broken. It calls us to do both. May we be known as people who stand firmly for life while reflecting the heart of Christ. Truth without mercy becomes condemnation. Mercy without truth becomes compromise. Jesus embodied both and so should we.