To Guard your Eyes,
I just wanted to take a few minutes to express the tremendous amount of hakaras hatov towards you and your organization. Since that sentence can't get any more cliche, I'll get a bit more personal :)
This year has been quite a challenging year for me. Struggle-related, emotionally, addictive'ly' - you name it. Looking back, I can honestly say that if someone I knew was in the 'needy' and desperate place I was in, I wouldn't be so quick to have a correspondence with them. However, the ONE place I was always able to come to, time and time again, no matter what the subject matter was, is Guard Your Eyes. The amount of 'please help me' emails I've sent, and 'I need chizzuk' emails, that I've got replies to is overwhelming. I highly doubt anyone who actually KNOWS me would give so much of their time, even more so a complete stranger. I honestly can't get over that. I mean, I can be completely psychotic, a psychopath etc for all you know - But - I'm Jewish, I'm struggling- so you helped me.
I feel like a million things have come up this year. Things that brought me down from years ago, friendships I've lost due to addiction, molestation concerns with one of my children, extended nidda for a period of 9 months... Those topics bringing along with them a host of concerns, questions, suicidal thoughts etc. And I've literally gotten advice and assistance from A-Z - with the added bonus of no judgement. Really incredible.
More than that, there were many times that I'd send a question to Guard Your Eyes. For instance, when I needed to change therapists. I asked, "do you know any therapists?" The answer I got was never 'yes or no' or 'ask xyz' or 'Yes, here is the number.' It was: "Sure, there is a woman who may know which therapist is best for you. This is her number - would you like me to call? Hatzlocha!" This is taking chessed to the next level.
Aside from the personal assistance and guidance and mentoring, the tools that are on the website, the community and the daily chizuk emails are highly inspiring and practical.
I'm approaching the new year and, G-d knows, I still struggle daily. There are memories to contend with, pain that comes up, addictive thoughts and patterns that I'm trying to avoid, but what's different about this year than any other is that I now have tools - thanks to Guard Your Eyes - to get through these moments. I know what to do, I've gotten wonderful advice, I can apply it to present situations, and more than all that--I know that I'm part of a wonderful nation--who will give of themselves daily purely for the sake of easing someone else's struggle. That in itself gives me a strong desire to better myself--so that I can always be on the giving end rather than the receiving end.
Thanks a lot.