Our job during these days of Elul is to figure out how we can improve inour avodat Hashem and then make concrete commitments on what exactly weare going to do about it. This is one of the ways in which we prepare for theawesome days of judgment ahead. When the evil inclination tries to dissuade usby saying "This is too difficult for you," or "People will laugh at you." Wemust remember, by improving in our avodat Hashem, weare only helping ourselves. Everyone has many needs that they ask of Hashem.Very often, the way He gives us what we need is through the mitzvahopportunities that He sends our way. If we become inspired to take on somethingnew, that inspiration is also m'et Hashem ת and we should not let it go without doingsomething about it first. A man, who we'll call Yehuda, told a story about what happened when hewas 27 years old. He was having a very hard time with shidduchim andcould have easily fallen into despair many times. One day, he traveled fromYerushalaim where he lived to Bne i Brak toattend the wedding of a friend who was younger than him. At 10:00 , after he dancedwith the chatan, he left the wedding hall and headed for the closest bus stopto return home. He bumped into a high school friend who was coming out of abuilding nearby. They spoke for a few minutes at the entrance of that building.Turned out, this friend was there to attend a sheva berachot . As they were talking, someone came out of the building and told hisfriend to please go upstairs because they didn't even have 10 men for the sheva berachot yet and the mood was very blah. It was close to 10:15 and theyonly had six. The person then asked Yehuda if he would do a chesed andcome up as well. Although it was late and he had a long ride home, he felt badfor the chatan and kallah and he went up. The scene he saw lookedpathetic. It was a chatan and kallah sitting there with their mechutanim ,one grandfather and two boys in an uncomfortable silence. Eventually they didget a minyan . The boy who invited Yehuda up asked him to please startsinging. Again, feeling bad for the chatan and kallah , he startedsinging some songs and only a couple of people joined in with him. Then he wasasked to get up and speak. Yehuda said he never saw this chatan in hislife, how could he speak by his sheva berachot ? The other boytold him a few things about the chatan and then told Yehuda he would bedoing a great mitzvah. Yehuda was a good public speaker and, after a littlemore prodding, he agreed to speak. He delivered a beautiful devar Torah and spoke so nicely about the chatan , as if he knew him for years. Afterthe speech, the chatan was so moved, he got up and gave Yehuda a hug andkiss, thanking him for his kind words. Nobody else spoke that night besidesYehuda. During dessert, the man sitting next to Yehuda asked him some questionsabout himself and when that man discovered that Yehuda had no connection toeither the chatan or the kallah , he was so impressed with the chesed he just did. That man also came as a chesed , not knowing the chatan or the kallah . He suggested his niece as a shidduch and, a fewmonths later, Yehuda became engaged to her. He is now happily married withthree children. Hashem presented Yehuda with a big chesed opportunity. Evenagreeing to go up was difficult, but then being the only singer and speaker atan unknown place must have been extremely uncomfortable. That is where Hashemhad the path to his shidduch awaiting. The avodah at times may behard but, as always, according to the efforts are the rewards.