We want to thank everyone who participated in the "Better Than I Deserve" Story Contest. We received a lot of great entries and it was hard to choose the winners, but we picked the following three entries. The winners will be contacted via email.
Hope you all had a fun and safe holiday. We are truly better than we deserve!
Entry #1
This Thanksgiving, I came to the realization that I really do have it better than I deserve. It has so profoundly impacted me that I just want to share with everyone. I have some friends who are 21. They got married about the same time as my husband and I did. They had their first baby 2 months after my husband and I had our 1st baby. The Saturday before Thanksgiving, they walked into their baby girl's room and could not wake her up. Their little girl was life flighted to a nearby hospital and placed on life-support. Come to find out, she had an aneurism. She died the next day while still on life-support; she was 19 months old. What a sobering and quiet Thanksgiving they had. I realized that I really do have it better than I deserve. I don't need money, glamor, or a fashionable lifestyle. Sometimes we forget that life's biggest gifts are the ones that we receive daily. I have 2 beautiful children and a loving husband. My family is all healthy, happy and well. Too many times I can get into the swing of the daily grind and not live every moment to its fullest. I never know when I might lose one of those most precious to me. I have been inspired to truly enjoy every moment with my family: playing in the yard, coloring, and sitting on the couch spending time together. Having my husband Tom, and my children Adam and Benjamin in my life every day is a privilege that I cannot adequately explain with words. I have it better than I deserve because I am privileged to wake up every day to see and enjoy my beautiful, healthy family.
- Abbey C.
Entry #2
A man drove into our yard on Saturday right before we were leaving for a Christmas party with his wife and said they had been homeless for 3 months. They offered to blow our leaves, but we said no because they would just fall again and mom didnt want them to waste their gas on us. They were willing to work for food they said. My mom took the lead and offered them a huge bag of change she was going to take to the local coin star. We rounded up the dollars and added them to the bag, then gave it to them. They started crying and said, "wow no one has helped us today, thank you for showing God's love to us." They went on to say, "Last night we went to a restaurant and asked for food, and they said no we don't just give food out, get a job." A hostess was moved with compassion and went out to her car and got a 5 dollar bill and told them where the closest McDonalds was.
They went on to say that God had been so faithful to them this year (they were homeless, and yet saw God's faithfulness). This was coming from people who had lived in a car for 3 months. They said that life was so good because of Jesus. I was moved again and reached for a 20 out of my wallet, slipped into the mans hand as we shook hands and they began to leave to return to their car. He cried more, and I teared up, he looked at me and had a heartfelt thank you on his face. The reminder to me was that because of Jesus I am always better than I deserve no matter the situation, and these people know that. Because of God's financial blessing this year I had some provision to pass on to another and I am indeed Better than I deserve.
- Matt
Entry #3
I've always known I had it better than I deserve. I married Ron 30 years ago November 25th..sadly he died September 19,2010. This man was one of a kind, truly a renaissance man. There was nothing he couldn't do or was afraid to try. This man had talent like no one I have ever met. Funny thing was,he didn't see it. His humility was something that didn't seem real...He was always there to help when needed. Even when he started his own business in 2001, he went above and beyond to make sure the job he did was how he would want it should it have been his own house( he did home renovations, kitchens, baths and so on) before that,21 years in the Navy, he never asked anything of his men that he wouldn't take on himself. He loved me with a pure and deep love like no other.We struggled in 2008, using all our savings to keep our home we had so lovingly restored(1740 colonial) in 2009 I found him a job in NM so we closed up our home and in May moved so he could work. We moved again to AZ to a better job in September of 2009. In November 2009 he was diagnosed with cancer, which took his life(he was 54) in September of 2010. Nothing can explain the loss this is. No words can explain how wonderful he was, how calm, how precious,how strong,how smart,how talented,how funny,how sexy,how ......amazing.My favorite quote he would say to me when times got rough was,"Kate there isn't anything we can't recover from"...well this too I will try to recover from but it will be the hardest thing I have EVER done. And truly, I had for 31 years, better than I deserve....with love to my darling Ron, Kate
- Kate B.