Berkley Center

Cynthia Marie Snyder: I remember one time when I was in college and seeing a little plaque in church that said, "Smile, God loves you." And I thought, "Oh, that's so sweet." But I didn't really feel his love. I felt like, "If I'm just good enough and I don't mess up, then he'll love me," which is totally not the way he is. And I took a Life in the Spirit Seminar, which was at that time…it was in the early seventies…and it was during that time of taking the Life in the Spirit Seminar that I really began to feel like, "he really loves me. It doesn't matter what I do. he just loves me." And that was totally overwhelming.

I think part of it, we were in these groups, and I had a cousin who had cerebral palsy. And he was like a Franciscan brother and had difficulty speaking, but he was just such a spirit-filled person. And I remember in our group, there was a woman who was young, had two young boys, and she was divorced. She was really brokenhearted. And she said, "When I was pregnant and I was delivering the baby, my husband didn't even show up." And you could tell she was just devastated. And I'm like, "Oh, what do you say?"

And my cousin David says, he starts quoting from Matthew where it says, "Come unto me, all those who are burdened and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. And I will restore you." And it was like, "Oh my gosh, that's so awesome"—which is really what he does. He says, "You don't have to be perfect. You just come as you are." And it was through that experience.

And one of my sisters, who at that time was living in California, had married and moved over there, and she got involved with the prayer groups, the Charismatic Renewal within the Catholic Church at that time. And she was like, if we're all the part of the body of Christ, and my sister Nelda was definitely the mouth—she wanted to share about the Lord to everybody. And it was through her I really got even closer to the Lord, and it's been an ongoing journey. And just the more you are touched by him, the more you want to serve him, and you love him. But you do it because you want to, and it's just such a difference. And for me, I always think, "I don't want to go back to how it used to be without him."

Martha Wright Martinez: I agree. I agree. And just having the faith in our life has been the center point of learning exactly what God does in our life. And we know that he's always there, but really, really learning to appreciate what he does in our life and being grateful and being thankful for... I mean, even our bad days, we have to say, "Thank you," because that makes our good days just that much better. And the obstacles, the traffic that we get into, we're not getting there quick enough and stuff. We have to say, "Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord."

Cynthia Marie Snyder: Exactly. I always think, "Okay, Lord, I don't want to be a bad representative of you, if they're going to judge you by my actions." So it's like, let me be the person that you created me to be and become what you want me to be.