Deserve: do something or have or show qualities worthy of – either reward or punishment. Synonyms include: “have a right to”, “Merit”, “be worthy of”, “warrant”, “be entitled to”.
Things we deserve; 1. A break. 2. Pure & honest love. 3. A chance to prove ourselves. 4. Happiness. 5. Success (however you define success).
Biblical meanings: Psalm 37:4- Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. Psalm 126: 2 “Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy”. In the bible, God tells us to be happy more times than any other command.
Recovery: “if you get what you deserve, it wouldn’t be all this groovy (good) stuff.”. We would have died in our addiction, in our crimes and immoral behaviors.
You often hear people giving other people congratulations on something and saying “you deserve it”. Weather it’s a job, a graduation, a vacation, a new house, car. You also hear people say, (mostly to someone else), “oh, they deserve to be punished for what they did.” If they committed a crime and are heading to jail. People often decide or judge what other people deserve, just from being an outside spectator.
I’m getting ready to pass one such judgement just to tell you that I think we as Americans have been doing a bang-up job of judging in our country lately. We are so hard on politicians, policemen, doctors and each other for our beliefs and personal opinions.
Mostly, I think we can be hardest on ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I often don’t feel deserving of good things that happen to me. I feel blessed – a lot- but I feel like it’s undeserving grace & mercy from God. I don’t really know what I deserve or what you deserve. That’s not my call- thank goodness! Or your call either. I’m still living in the whole thought process of “if I got what I had coming to me, I’d be doomed”.
But I also know that since I’ve been clean, I’ve worked hard, changed my ways, try to walk my talk and give back where I can. Does all that mean I deserve a break now? A vacation? A windfall reward of money? A perfect body? The best kids in the world? All good and wonderful things? Uh, that’d be nice, but I guess I’m just not deserving enough. I’ll try harder eh?
I don’t know why it irks me to hear “you deserve it”, it just does. I guess because I feel like there is only one who can pass that kind of judgment. Whether good or bad or otherwise, we all deserve an equitable chance at this thing called life, right from the gate. If we make bad choices later in life, that’s on us, then of course, we’ll get what we deserve- maybe. Or if we make good choices, we’ll get what we deserve- maybe. Who knows? God maybe?
I honestly can’t tell you what drew me to this topic this week, I just know it was there. I don’t feel anything has been really been resolved about it for me, I just needed to discuss it. Your thoughts would be welcomed.
Question of the week: What do you feel you are deserving of? Why?