Larry Delaney: An Attitude of Gratitude

In this Words of the Wise episode, Lexie sits down with Larry Delaney, an 83-year-old lifelong Christian minister whose calling began at 15 watching a pastor pray over his stepfather in the hospital. Larry shares how early influences—radio sermons at his family’s Sunday table, jail visitation during college, migrant-camp outreach, and work at the Muncie Mission—formed a ministry defined by compassion and presence. What began with eight folding chairs in his basement grew into decades of preaching, shepherding, and mentoring.

Larry’s story is stitched together by gratitude and grace. “I’m not a self-made man—there are fingerprints of all kinds of people on my life,” he says, urging listeners to “practice an attitude of gratitude.” He reflects on seasons of weakness and resilience—“Our sufficiency is in God”—and on aging with purpose: after preaching recently, someone told him, “You still got the fire in the belly,” to which he replied, “Yes, I do.”

From his “apple-dumpling days” of childhood to learning he’s content being a “tender willow” rather than a “strong oak,” Larry’s wisdom is gentle, practical, and deeply hopeful. The conversation is made even more special with his grandson Carter Anderson sitting in—an image of legacy unfolding “for such a time as this.”

Listeners will come away steadied by Larry’s simple north star: know Jesus, make Him known, love your family, and give thanks—every day.