God wants you to be a winner, not a whiner. Joel Osteen
Are you a winner? Well, maybe not when it comes to having your name drawn out of a pot to win a prize. I’m not that. I sometimes joke and say that if there are only two entries in a drawing and one of them is mine, the other fellow is a shoe-in to win. That’s not always true. I have won a few things in my life. A bottle of perfume once from a local drugstore. I even splashed a little of it behind my ears now and again. A long time ago I won a beautiful handmade afghan in a library raffle when they were trying to raise money for some reason that I don’t remember.
I did win this cute little dog and cat Christmas tree, but I think that time I had four tickets to someone else’s one ticket. I was a happy winner. It’s a cute little tree and I brought it home and set it up in Oscar’s room. Now Frankie sleeps in that room, but it will always be Oscar’s room. That’s because Oscar got run over by the builder adding that room on for us and had to have surgery to repair his leg. Expensive surgery! So he turned from an outside dog (he refused to come in the house) to an inside dog (he had to come in the house while he healed.) And forever after, until he died of bone cancer five years later, he was a sweet inside dog who would not go into the kitchen from that room. His room. 
Frankie has no problem going into any room with an open door!
But we have so many better ways to be winners than winning raffles. We’re winners when we’re blessed with loving family and friends. We win when we let Jesus come into our heart. We are blessed when we find a church where we are part of a Christian family of God. If we’re parents and/or grandparents, we win every time we see our children smile because they have reached some milestone in life. Perhaps the day they first said mama or daddy or the time they turned loose and walked across a room. We won the day they walked across the stage to receive their high school diploma or when we got teary-eyed watching them stand before a preacher to say marriage vows. Those are some big ways to win, but we have little victories each and every day too. Sometimes something as simple as finding a lost item you need or trying a new recipe or getting a few words written on a new story (okay, that’s one of my victories.) I also win when I hear from one of you that you’ve liked one of my stories. You might win when someone tells you thank you for something when you didn’t think anybody had noticed.
Winning can be fun. Sometimes it can be because of hard work the way Larry Bird, the basketball player says here. “A winner is someone who recognizes his God-given talents, works his tail off to develop them into skills, and uses these skills to accomplish his goals.”
And then sometimes you don’t do anything but enter a giveaway on a blog like mine or from a newsletter like mine and you end up a winner. So are you ready to hear who the winners are? Drum roll, please.
First, the winners of the giveaway here on my blog just for you who read my posts and leave comments. Janice Wilkerson won the Christmas decoration and her choice of one of my books. Kathy Schnitz won one of my books and I’ve already heard from her. She wants These Healing Hills. Thank all of you for making this blog giveaway fun. I’ve enjoyed your comments so much and I always appreciate you reading the posts and joining the conversation there.
Next we have the winners of my newsletter Christmas giveaway. I’ve sent each of the winners an e-mail already. They all win the gift card from the book site of their choice and their choice of one of my books. The winners are Faith Creech, Hope Swartzlander, and Connie Williamson. I’ve heard from Faith already and she picked Murder Is No Accident. She says she’s read the other two Hidden Springs mysteries and wants to read the third one. So if you see your name here, check your e-mails. I had a lot of entries in my newsletter contest and I so appreciate all of you who read my newsletters and join in with my giveaway fun.
In what ways have you been winners?