Will B.

Serving my community and giving back gives me so much joy, but on occasion there are always a few that almost make me regret it on certain photography shoots. I am often offered monetary compensation for the time I donate to take team photos or other times I do free shoots, and I always quickly reply, ‘No I cannot take any money for this. Taking the money would defeat the purpose of donating my time as a photographer and giving back to the community.’

God has always provided me with exactly what I needed to get by and I trust in his plan for me. I do on occasion accept a free shirt or gift because I think it would just be rude to turn down something that someone put time into to make a gesture of thanks. I don’t expect it and do not ask for compensation though, but do appreciate it when I receive a card of thanks from a student, maybe a shirt from a team or a delicious baked dessert from time to time.

Faith and loyalty have always been my two strongest attributes, even at a young age. I have never had more then a friend or two at a time since I was a little whippersnapper but those I did call friends I was fiercely loyal to. My strong faith comes from a life of strife and living a hard life - not including the last 20 years; those have been relatively blissful. I feel lucky to have been through so much turmoil because I got to see God constantly working in my life. This gave me an abundance of faith, seeing how he worked in my life time after time. Some people do not have the luxury of living a rough life and therefore may not have had many opportunities to witness God working miracles in their life. I am sure their strengths most likely lie elsewhere. I say all of that to get to my point: my weakness. That has always been pride; pride is the great destroyer of all things. It has ruined a lot of things for me until I finally recognized it and began a constant vigil against letting it take over in my life.

Sometimes it takes a lot of background to get to my points but here it is finally. While recently donating my time to take photos, a few rude comments – made to me by some parents from another town who came to Olney for their kids’ sporting event – almost got to me.

My first reaction was, ‘Well, no photos of your kids’ team. Have a nice day.’ I took some time, walked around and thought about it and knew this was one of those moments that the devil was trying to inject pride into me again.

After taking a little time I decided I would not let the actions of a few of the parents ruin something for the other parents and started shooting the team during the event.

I was very grateful that the parents were not from Olney or Newcastle; that would have broken my heart a little because I love both of those towns so much and have always received nothing but positive feedback from them.

This is Will B saying, don’t let pride make your choices for you. Think about what Jesus would want you to do in that situation.