Want to know how to make a difference in the lives of the people around you?
Choose to live like Wayne.
I received the following message via Facebook. I hope it encourages you to see the best in everyone — even when they can’t see it in themselves:
Ms. Reid,
You don’t know me, but your husband did. We met at a weekly men’s morning coffee group at Valley Creek back in 2013. I had just gotten to Lewisville out of a drug and alcohol rehab in South Texas, was staying in a halfway house in Lewisville, and was struggling to find community and encouragement.
Wayne took the time to talk to me, to encourage me, and to invest in me. I was working Friday through Monday as a mortgage collections agent and he offered me a side job to stay occupied the other three days of the week. I ran to the auto auctions with him, took cars to get touched up, re-upholstered or a GPS tracker added.
I made quite a few mistakes and dinged a bumper or two. Wayne was never mad, always patient, and continually poured out the gospel in his words and actions.
I have been clean for nearly eight years now. I got married, graduated the very top of my law school class, work at one of the most prestigious law firms in the nation, and am about to have my third child.
I often think back to that scared, insecure wreck of a man fresh out of rehab and think about how far God has brought me. I think about how many times my heavenly Father has blessed me with relationships I lacked growing up. Men like your husband, who didn’t worry about what they saw on the outside, but instead chose to obediently love with the love of Jesus, and who God used to tremendously affect in my life and bring me out of that hell of addiction.
Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you for marrying Wayne. Just as his own steadfast love and encouragement helped shape me into the man I am today, I know that he was that kind of man in large part because of how God used you to shape him.
Wayne was a true blessing from the Lord and he is still sorely missed. God bless and keep you. May He remind you of the beautiful way He used your husband’s life to bless so many others and bring Himself eternal glory.
Now, that’s how to live a great story!
