A Heroic Story 

There was once this Italian woman not long ago that had this beautiful life. She had a career as a doctor, she was a wife, and a mother to three wonderful children. When she got pregnant with her fourth child, the doctors found a tumor in her uterus. They encouraged her to abort her baby and remove her uterus, but she refused because she wanted her baby girl to live. The doctors tried to remove the tumor the best that they could, but the woman died a week after giving birth to her daughter. The woman’s name was Gianna Molla, now known as SAINT Gianna.

I wanted to give you a snapshot of St. Gianna’s story because I think there’s a lot we can learn from it. So many times in life, we have unexpected things thrown at us. Some of them are good, some bad. But so many times when the bad things happen to us, we think of what we could of done differently, we try to change them, or we wished they would have never happened at all.

Responding to Suffering 

In my own life, I have realized that when I respond in this manner I’m miserable. If I dwell on the negative of a situation, instead of just accepting what is and being thankful for it, I don’t allow myself to experience joy. However, I found that when I respond with thankfulness in every situation, whether good or bad, I can find happiness even in life’s sufferings.

Saint Gianna could have responded to her suffering with bitterness, self-pity, and depression, yet she chose to be thankful, recognizing that it was part of God’s plan for her life. How do we know that? Because of how she responded. She could have easily gotten rid of her tumor and lived a healthy and long life if she let the doctors abort her baby and remove her uterus. However, she knew her daughter needed the chance to live, which is why she risked her own life for her child’s. She chose to be selfless and thankful for the life she did have, instead of trying to fix it.

One of my favorite quote’s from her that really sums up how I try to live my life is as follows:

“The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for all that He, in His goodness, sends to us day after day.”

Applicable Life Tips 

So how do we realistically apply this to our own, ordinary lives? How do we learn to respond to life’s hardships with gratitude and joy?

The first step is to accept your suffering. 

When we learn to accept a situation and not wish it away or wish our lives were different, we learn to stop dwelling so much on the negative in our lives.

In my life, I’ve noticed when I began accepting the sufferings in my life, no matter how big or small, I was able to see them fit into God’s plan for my life. I have had many failures, but I accepted them because I realized I needed to go through them for a reason. Although it’s hard, even when I don’t understand why I am given a certain cross in life, I know I must accept it and move on. Only by accepting our suffering can we move to Step 2.

The second step is to be thankful for your suffering. 

This is the hard part. While most people are able to accept reality and realize they have to deal with their problems, many people would never think of being thankful for them. But by being thankful for your problems, you’ll begin to realize that you accept them, not just realistically speaking, but you accept them with joy!

I know I might sound crazy, but believe it or not, this actually works. When something bad comes up in my life, my initial reaction is negativity and to get mad or sad or whatever. However, since I’ve started practicing my new perspective of thankfulness, I’ve realized that I am able to accept my sufferings with true joy!

My Challenge for You

So my challenge for you is to #1) Accept your suffering & #2) Be thankful for your suffering.

Start small. If you get get a bad grade on an exam or get yelled at by your boss, instead of letting it get you upset, say a quick prayer. Thank God for giving you that experience and ask Him to help it make you a better person.

Keep practicing it in small things and it will begin to translate into your life’s biggest struggles.

By practicing thankfulness, you’ll be able to change your perspective of suffering to one of joy.

St. Gianna, pray for us!

From the depths of my soul to yours,

Josie