After "why, God?" came "thank you, God."
That was the transformation that came over country star Reba McEntire as she looked back on the events in her life following the personal devastation she suffered when her marriage to her former manager, Narvel Blackstock, came to an end after 10 years—a divorce she said she never wanted.
In a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight, McEntire said she is open to finding love again after God helped her overcome a painful divorce. All the credit belongs to "God, my girlfriends, my family, work and staying busy," she said when asked how she's getting through her divorce.
"I'm just kinda winging it, taking one day at a time and loving life, enjoying being with my friends and family as much as I possibly can," the 61-year-old singer and accomplished songwriter added.
Does she still have a place in her heart for another man to fall in love with?
"I think it's always nice to have somebody to go to dinner with and fall in love with I don't see anything wrong with that at all," she said.
In an earlier interview with Parade magazine, the Country Music Awards winner admitted that she drew up a list of questions for God after her split with her husband. The biggest of them was, "Why did He allow the divorce to happen?"
Later on, she found the answer to her questions.
"Over the last two years I've been going through a divorce. God's way is the best way. And it seems to me that Narvel is happier and I'm in a really good state of mind. It's taken me this time to pull through why and how. And there's been a lot between us and I believe that to forgive is easier than forget," she told Parade magazine.
She affirmed that her life is glued to her faith now. "Going on with life is what's really important. And my faith helped me with that. I think about what God wants me to do. I focus on that. Faith is really important. It keeps me sane and it keeps me hopeful," she said.
Last year, in an interview with CMT's Cody Alan, McEntire said she prayed God to give her "the strength to move one foot in front of the other to continue on with what I'm supposed to be doing and why He put me on this Earth in the first place."
She stressed that the divorce "was not my idea," saying that some of what her former husband did was "unforgettable."
However, she agreed to the divorce, saying she just wants "everybody to be happy in their lives because our lives are too short to be miserable."
"I just thought it was the best thing to take my marbles and go play somewhere else, is what Daddy used to always say," she added.
