Cindy....She Did it Again!

Tonight was a spectacular night....one that I look forward to every year. It was the night that our women's ministry, The Well, featured our very own beloved Associate Pastor Cindy as the speaker. I have quoted Cindy previously, in the Clean Up Clean Up...Post, and I wish I could quote her word for word every time I hear her preach or speak or read something she has written. I use to think, and still do oftentimes, that she was looking at and speaking directly to me when she preached. I even found myself nonchalantly looking around at others to see if they noticed that she was, indeed, talking only to me. I have to admit that I was a little jealous when I found out that other people felt that way as well....that she was focusing on them and them alone and their need at that particular time. She truly touches my soul with her words, and she is a blessing to me (and she's darn funny to boot).
Tonight her topic was being grateful which is one that I can honestly say, was one where I didn't feel like she was looking right at me, speaking directly to me and focusing only on me (at least not until she got past the title of her sermon-hehe). I am truly grateful for my blessings (big or small, challenging or easy, good or bad) and believe wholeheartedly that there is always something to be grateful for each and every day. It is an attitude that I truly embrace, try to teach my kids, and let shine through my words and actions. Don't think I'm tootin' my own horn here, because this has been a conscious effort and a work in progress on my part and was not easy at first. When things weren't going the way I thought they should, I use to get angry, pout, sulk and make everyone around me miserable; BUT one day I decided that this is what was making me unhappy. I also realized that I was really putting a damper on other people as well, mainly my parents. It was right after the Oklahoma City Bombing occurred, and I heard this lady speaking about how she was so grateful to have survied after she had to sever her own leg from her body with a pocket knife to free herself from entrapment. Work with me here....she had to cut her leg off with a pocket knife in order to survive. It took her hours and hours to free herself from the rubble. She literally sawed on her leg for hours. As I watched this woman share this story, and I saw the true happiness and gratitude exude from her; I realized that I needed to get over my own self pity and look at the good things in my life....rearrange things I was concentrating on (as Cindy said tonight) to focus on the good things; and I have since done that. There are still oftentimes things don't go the way I thought they should, orI don't understand what happened, or I find myself in the midst of a storm; and I struggle. At the end of the day I sit down and re-evaluate all I have to be grateful for, and it doesn't take away the storms; but it does change my focus. Then I thank God again for the umpteenth time that day for all of those things. One thing Cindy said tonight, that did make me think she was indeed looking directly at me and speaking to only me, was the following...."All happy people are grateful, and ungrateful people cannot be happy. We tend to think that it is being unhappy that leads people to complain, but it is truer to say that it is complaining that leads to people becoming unhappy. Become grateful, and you will become a much happier person." She quoted this from Dennis Prager's book Happiness is a Serious Problem. When she said those words, it took me back to the times when I was ungrateful and unhappy. It led me to reflect on my choice to be grateful and happy now, and I wondered to myself... How did she know? How does she always know? Maybe because she is so in tune with women. Maybe it's because God puts her right where she is needed at the right time. Maybe it's because that's just what she does. Cindy, you did it again; and for you I am so grateful.