“My greatest value is my love of God,” Kathy said. “When Father Cromly had us do this exercise, this came to me right away. It came so quickly that I just knew this was it. But the second part, which was realizing what is holding me back from giving that value to the world, was a lot harder for me.”
No sooner did she turn to Our Lady and her guardian angel for help than she suddenly found herself coming up with a long list of things that were holding her back. “I came up with 15 things!” Kathy said. “They’re not earth-shattering things, just little everyday things such as shyness, things that I feel I can change.”
The exercise was a real eye-opener for her. “But what really changed me was the talk on leadership. Leadership is something anyone can do wherever you are. It doesn’t mean you have to apply for the management position in a big company or take a mission trip to Haiti. It’s in your own family, within your own sphere of influence,” she said.
“I used to think why am I so quiet? Why can’t I go into a room and meet all these new people? It’s so hard for me. But then I realized that God made people with certain temperaments for a reason. You can’t be talking and taking things in at the same time. Quiet people see things that many others may not see.”
Being discouraged about who we are can be a kind of sadness for God, she said. “He made us this way for a particular reason. It has to do with our mission, with what He wants us to bring into the world. . . “Leadership is being who you are. You need to be who you are, to use the gifts God gave you where He’s placed you. Don’t be afraid to be who you are. People will recognize that. They will gravitate to that.”
As Father Cromly said so well during the seminar: “You can’t celebrate the victory without unless you have the victory within.”
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