WOMEN IN ACTION

It’s far easier to look at all the bad things that have happened in our lives. All the words you’ve heard that hurt you so deeply, the affection you didn’t get, the appreciation you never received and all the bad stuff that is engraved in the way you react to people and situations.

It’s easier to look at everything you have lost and the opportunities you have missed and the mistakes you have made.

It’s just easier to look back and see the good things you had in life and not really be happy about them, but instead, simply focus on the fact that you no longer have them.

But to dwell on the good things… that’s not so easy.

So today, just now, I was thinking about how blessed my life has been, despite all the bad stuff. How far I am from what I once was, how much I have learned and how much I have grown and how many opportunities I have had. I have experienced things far greater than I have ever imagined or dreamed of.

I have had great moments in my life and have met some incredible people.

So, by thinking about these blessings, I tried to pinpoint the people responsible for them. I though ‘Surely my husband is one of them, after all he is a dream come true, literally’.

But then I though about the friends I have and was certain that they are one of the main reasons I am blessed.

And then I thought about the life I’ve led and the sacrifices I have made and thought I had finally found what had caused me to be blessed.

But then my mind wandered to a place and a time when none of these things existed yet, no husband, no friends, no direction in life. Just loneliness, hopelessness, emptiness…

And so it was clear to me that God was the one who provided all these possibilities, He was the one who caused me to meet the amazing people I have met and gave me the opportunities I have had.

He knew exactly what I needed and gave me much, much more than what I expected.

And so I thought to myself, ‘Should I be sad about the great things I had and have no more? Should I dwell in the fact that they are in my past?’ No, I should be grateful for them and rest in the certainty that He who gave me all those things is still with me and wants to bless me even more.

‘God had been thinking about you’ was what I heard in the service yesterday.

Well, how can that not be true when everything I wrote here is living proof of that?

God was thinking about me when He called me to be part of this great work, this great family.

So, no more sad feelings, I am blessed and so are you!

Raphaela Castro, pastor’s wife, Houston, TX