Tears

I've kept a "Gratitude Journal" for YEARS - I was telling the girls this past Sunday how it's a helpful tool when praying. I start off each evening, writing in it with at least 5 things I'm grateful for during the day. Even on some of the worst days of my life, I find 5 days I'm thankful to God for - its not always easy but I find things. And on those days, it can be the simpliest things - like a roof over my head or food in my cabinets - & truthfully, thinking about it - those aren't really "simple" things. How many people don't have those things - see how we take things for granted.

Then after my "Gratitude" - I'll write down things I want to pray about. Now the interesting thing about that - I have journals from year & years & its pretty neat sometimes to look back at those things & to see how things have been answered.

In December, I found a journal that was made for this - called appropriately enough "Gratitude Journal" & its dated & each day has a quote on it about gratitude & thankfulness - I'm loving it. I'm just use to cheap little note pads & something quick to write in - I'm enjoying this beautiful journal. The quote for the other day just really hit me though. And before I tell you what it is - if you know me - you know I'm a crier. I'll cry when I'm happy, when I'm mad, when I'm angry, when I'm sad (look at me being all poetic about it too) - but its true. I'm such a sap. I even cried this past Saturday AGAIN watching "A League of their Own" with Tom Hanks - yes, the girl baseball movie. And I know Tom Hanks even says "There's no crying in baseball!" - still, at the end, when the older ladies get together & they play that song by Madonna - I get a lump in my throat!

Or how about that commercial with the dog in the animal shelter - where the people walk by & the dog looks at them like, "Why not me?" OHHH - I just avoid it now when I see that commercial.

I even cried at a movie I just watched called "My Date with Drew" - a documentary about a guy who tried to get a date with Drew Barrymore! It is the cutest movie - you cant help but cheer for this guy! I was just so happy for him in this thing - I teared up! How pitiful am I!!!

So the quote I found:
"We should be thankful for our tears - they prepare our eyes for a clearer vision of God" -William Arthur Ward

I just find comfort in that quote. To think our tears are being used to bring us closer to God - especially those soul sobbing cries - those are the ones that I can really find truth in that statement. You know after you have one of those "cries" - you can feel like a release - like something is off your shoulders. You even feel physically worn out sometimes after a hard cry. Just look at it now as another way to draw closer to God - to see His vision for us through those tears.