My husband and I watched “Its A Wonderful Life” tonight, which is one of my favorites.

Watching it tonight brought out different emotions in me as I felt like we could relate to George Bailey’s financial struggles over the past couple years. Not quite, because we haven’t lived through the Great Depression or gone through the extremes of hardship as George did, but we have definitely felt financial stress.

One such time was right before our sweet Jace was born. I had recently stopped working, as I needed to live with my parents to be closer to the hospital the three weeks prior to my due date. We felt the change in our financial climate and were adjusting to life without my part time income.

I remember telling Kylan that I didn’t know how we were going to afford eating out or “extra” expenses while we were at the hospital for 3-4 weeks. We already had so much stress and uncertainty at this time in our lives that the added financial stress was a heavy load on our hearts.

The week before Jace was born, my dear friend (who actually introduced Kylan and I eight years earlier) insisted on setting up a Go Fund Me for our family. I have a hard time accepting gifts (especially of money) but I was thankful and knew we needed the help.

What happened next amazed us.

Over the next days leading up to the birth of our baby, money and kind words started pouring in. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. To see people donate to us that barely knew us, or whom we didn’t know at all, astounded us. To see the generosity of our friends, family and community was overwhelming.

The $2,000 amount that my friend had set for our fund was surpassed over three times.

Instead of stressing over every dime while we sat in the hospital, wondering how we would pay for our lodging and food, I had a very different experience. I remember sitting in Jace’s room days after his surgery, alarms beeping, crying as I saw the love and generosity people were showing to our family.

Tonight as a watched the scene in “Its A Wonderful Life,” as George and his family are standing there astounded by the generous giving of their community, I understood how he felt. The humbled heart, the thankful spirit and the utter amazement that people care so much.

Receiving can be difficult for many of us, especially when our pride gets in the way. But what a life-altering moment when we accept help, accept a gift, or accept a compliment.

As we come into this Christmas, I’m reminded that Jesus is our gift and all we have to do is receive Him. Set our pride aside, admit that we need a savior, and accept Him.