Be grateful today

"You simply will not be the same person two months from now after consciously giving thanks each day for the abundance that exists in your life. And you will have set in motion an ancient spiritual law: the more you have and are grateful for, the more will be given you."
~ Sarah Ban Breathnach, Simple abundance

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow."
~ Melody Beattie

"There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a quiet joy."
~ Ralph H. Blum

"When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears"
~Anthony Robbins

“Good men and bad men differ radically. Bad men never appreciate kindness shown them, but wise men appreciate and are grateful. Wise men try to express their appreciation and gratitude by some return of kindness, not only to their benefactor, but to everyone.”
~Buddha

“Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.”
~Jacques Maritain

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”
~Dennis Waitley

“Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech.”
~Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health

Find the spiritual space

If you want to grow a garden, you have to find a plot of ground to plant your seeds. If you want to see a new movie you have to make room in your schedule to take in the flick. If you want to raise children you have to rearrange your whole life to allow for sufficient attention, interaction, nurturing, educating and comforting of these precious ones. Any new possibility you’d like to enter your life has to have room in your experience to occupy. You can’t put one more cup of water into an already full gallon of liquid.

A wife was complaining about the seeming meaninglessness of love-making with her husband. “What’s the point?” She wondered. Her husband wanted it, and so had she in earlier years, but now the act seemed empty and boringly ritualistic.

“Make space for the mutual tenderness, thoughtfulness and spiritual affection you really want to feel,” I replied. “Rather than getting depressed over what you don’t like, make room for moments of authentic caring and sharing. Put the physical impulse at bay long enough to give true love a chance to surface between the two of you and be felt spiritually rather than jumping into a mechanical act that soon ends and leaves no permanent improvement in your relationship. Make room for “real” love-making.” I added.

“Aw!” Came the response. “That’s what we need,--space for moments of meaningful caring.”

In our busy rush-rush society the most important things in life often get pushed to the side. In an effort to get a job done, we sacrifice patience and courteousness. In attempts to earn more money, we lose family and marriages. To do what we want to do, we disregard what others important to us desire. We often complain we can’t help it. We had no choice, we argue. But we do have a choice, and the moral imperative is to choose the right options.

Our son loves to play video games on his computer. My wife and I learned long ago we had to regulate his time at the PC so other important activities—like homework!!—didn’t get shoved out of his schedule and forgotten. We had to make sure he had space in his mind for the priorities.

Is there something lacking in your life you’d like to see more of? Make space for it. Accept the possibility of the idea, and like a seed germinating into a full-blown plant, it will bloom in your experience.

There is a spiritual space that every progressive idea occupies. Find that space and abide in it.

It’s not extra hours in the day that creates the desired space. It’s waking up to a new and better view and then acting on it that provides the additional room.

Like experiencing true love. Love doesn’t take material space to be had. It’s not a commodity. God is Love, and God is everywhere. But it does take thoughtfulness, affectionate caring, openness and nurturing to feel the blessings of Love. As we commit to expressing these qualities, we enter the spiritual space they occupy, and they in turn find space in our human experience.

This rule applies to every new and better experience we'd like to claim as our own.

Release from "I need"

Have you ever been mesmerized by the belief that you had to buy something in particular to be happy? Maybe you wanted a new car, a widescreen TV, a vacation package, or an updated wardrobe?

Shortly after I graduated from college, years ago, some of my college friends bought new cars. It seemed the thing to do at the time. I felt left behind because my humble brown Dodge colt was far from “hot.” Now that I had disposable income, why not buy a new flashy vehicle like everyone else? I figured.















I don’t remember the specific model, but it was a smart 2 door red Mazda sports car that caught my eye. Problem was, back in the early 1980s, $18,000 was a lot of money. Still is today. Going into debt for a consumer item was anathema for me, but I budgeted out how I could buy the car in a couple of years with a strict savings plan.

For two years, the belief of “I need that sports car,” pestered thought for attention. I noticed every red car I passed on the highway. I watched the ads in the paper. I stopped to drool at the car lots.

After several months of wasting a considerable amount of mental time consumed by fantasizing about this red sports car it occurred to me that maybe I didn’t need it.

After all, I was fine without it. All my needs were met. I had money in the bank. No one liked me or didn’t like me any less or more because of the car I owned. Why would I want to spend such a huge sum of money on a car I didn’t need?

Wake up time!

I prayed about whether I needed the car or not, and the answer was clear. No! My needs were met spiritually, and I didn’t need a new rig to be happy. Happiness was spiritual, and came from God, I argued. It didn't come from a car lot.

“Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love.” Mary Baker Eddy

It took several months of spiritual reasoning and convincing, but eventually I decided I didn’t need a fancy expensive sports car to be happy. I canceled my plans to buy one, put the money into developing an apple orchard, and came out far better in the long run financially, emotionally, and spiritually.

I have benefited from this lesson many times since.

My wife and I had been considering the purchase of three significant items for our household in recent weeks. We can afford the purchases, and they would be nice to have, but altogether, they added up to a lot of money. Yesterday, we decided together that we didn’t need any of them. We’d save the money instead. A major feeling of release and contentment swept over me. “We have enough,” I rejoiced. "We didn’t need to buy anything more."

I remembered the craving to buy that sports car, years ago, and how thrilled I was over time that I never went through with the purchase.

Be content with what you have, Paul taught.

Dropping “I need” and replacing it with “I have enough,” brings huge release. Not only release from craving, but release from a false sense of security, release from potential debt, release from thinking you need something more later when you grow tired of your acquisition…just general release from the gross materialistic wave of consumerism that has swept over our culture in recent decades and caused many people to feel like they lack all the time.

It’s not true! We don’t lack. God created us complete in Spirit, and the more we identify with our spiritual completeness, the less material things we think we need.

It’s ironic that buying more stuff often leads to a greater feeling of emptiness and lack, whereas the ability to say “I have enough” leads to deep settled contentment, satisfaction and joy within. The difference is where you’re looking for happiness.

Material things can never deliver what only comes from God. Completeness is a spiritual state of Mind. It’s a conviction of “I have enough and I don’t need anything from the world to be anything more than God already created me to be.” And it leads to stable peaceful living.

You have enough too!

You have what you need

There must be more to life than having everything!
~Maurice Sendak

You can never get enough of what you don't need to make you happy.
~Eric Hoffer

The world is full of people looking for spectacular happiness while they snub contentment.
~Doug Larson

He who buys what he does not need steals from himself.
~Author Unknown

Who covets more, is evermore a slave.
~Robert Herrick

The happy have whole days,
and those they choose.
The unhappy have but hours,
and those they lose.
~Colley Cibber


The best way for a person to have happy thoughts is to count his blessings and not his cash.
~Author Unknown

Pets in the holiday spirit

One of my readers sent me an email filled with animals dressed in cute costumes. I enjoyed the pictures so much I wanted to sure a few with you.

I wasn’t sure about posting the below on this blog, but then again, I think God has a sense of humor. Don’t you? And a few chuckles now and then make for healthier happier days. And I know several of you readers are avid pet fans. So enjoy…

Eating the right amount

I momentarily marveled this morning at our son’s ability to stop eating when he’s had enough food. He’s always been able to say no to over eating. He can have a whole plate of food before him, take a few bites and say, “I’m full,” put his fork down, and be perfectly content until the next meal. He will not nibble, take a little more to pass the time, or eat the food anyway. He’ll stop. That’s it. No more. He’s done, and happily so.

My wife and I struggled in the early years of raising our children with how to educate our two kids about eating. We both had been raised in the mantra of “Eat everything on your plate,” but we both had struggled in times past with eating too much food and didn’t want our kids to struggle with the same nonsense. So, after much prayer and discussion, we adopted the habit of giving them small portions at mealtime, and then letting them ask for more if they desired. As time evolved, they rarely ask for seconds, and learned through experience to eat modestly and happily so. And their plates were generally clean when finished.

As I rejoiced over our son’s self-knowledge of knowing when enough is enough, I thought about ways people are mentally influenced to step over the bounds of reason unthinkingly and then act out the role of victim when it comes to eating.

It’s a common excuse for overeaters to utter complaints such as “I couldn’t help it. I didn’t realize I was eating so much” and so on. But in truth, we can help it, and we can stop, but mortal mind has so educated us to believe we can’t think for ourselves and act according to what we know is right, that we believe it and act out the helplessness.

The dictum of “Eat everything on your plate,” should be banished into the cauldron of “never again” forever.

What if someone gives you too much food? What if you unthinkingly took too much food and soon realized your error? What if you’re at a restaurant that serves enough helping to one person to fill three? Should you still have to eat it? Definitely not. We should eat what is appropriate, not what mortal mind is whispering into thought we should do.

The one Mind thinks for itself and is not swayed by popular belief, mom’s opinion, cultural customs, past habits, restaurant practice, the eyes, the stomach, mindlessness or gluttony. As children of God, we are in possession of the one Mind that thinks for itself and makes wise sound decisions. When we sit down to a meal, we are not governed by what is put before us. We are governed by God, and God will lead us aright if we listen and faithfully follow.

We can say “Enough is enough,” put our fork down, walk away and be perfectly content until the next meal.

Cosmetic surgery's dark side

With the surge of people racing to cosmetic surgeons for liposuction, tummy tucks, botox injections and a myriad of other surgical and nonsurgical procedures to alter their bodily appearance, it’s heartening to find one articulate voice warning people to think twice before proceeding.

Alex Luczynski, 38, a reporter at the New York Times, and author of “Beauty Junkies,” has “been there done that,” when it comes to nips, tucks and botox. Speaking from ten years of miserable experience, she exposes many of the myths surrounding cosmetic enhancement in her book and questions whether the pursuit of beauty through physical alteration is really worth it.

In an interview with Janet Kornblum for USA Today, she is quoted as saying

“…I hope to never have surgery again…I feel just nauseous and sad that I spent 10 years of my life dyeing my hair blond. I regret having liposuction because it was a small amount of fat and it hurt a lot. And I really still feel guilty about the money I spent…I feel bad about having spent thousands of dollars on Botox over the last 10 years."

Barbara Liss, in a review of “Beauty Junkies,” wrote,

“Kuczynski has artfully tapped into the zeitgeist, showing us that our preoccupation with looking young has become something of a Frankenstein monster.”

These days, thousands of teenage girls, in striving to live up to Hollywood star ideals and runway model figures, seek out cosmetic procedures to presumably make themselves look better.

Is it time to think more deeply about what constitutes true beauty? Many wonder.

"Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as mortal belief."

"Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, outline, and color." Mary Baker Eddy

Some of the most beautiful people I know have gray hair and wrinkles. And those creases in the skin mean nothing to the people who love them and value their friendship.

Is the true “…expression, form, outline, and color” of God’s creation in skin condition, buttock heft, and tummy size? Or is it the finer things of Soul manifest in spiritual joy, self-worth, contentment and self-respect?

I can't help but remember that God made each of us beautiful in our own unique way. Perhaps its time to honor and value the divine individuality we’ve already been blessed with and lose the fear that we need to be something physically different to be happy with ourselves.

It’s a lot easier on the pocketbook, and the long term side effects are all healthy.

What is beauty?

Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart. ~Kahlil Gibran

Taking joy in living is a woman's best cosmetic. ~Rosalind Russell

I've never seen a smiling face that was not beautiful. ~Author Unknown

You don't love a woman because she is beautiful, she is beautiful because you love her. ~Author Unknown

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

A safer route to healing?

In the October 2006 issue of Readers Digest, the Health IQ section reported...

The Institute of Medicine looked at the prevalence of medication errors and found scary stuff:

• The average hospital patient is the victim of about one medication error per day.
• There are at least 1.5 million preventable adverse
  drug events each year.
• Each harmful error adds $8,750 to the cost of your
  hospital stay.
  

Wow! Is this possible? Not too good of odds.

Sounds like its time for a safer healthcare program that eliminates the possibility of medication errors.

How about the medicine of Mind? It’s the remedy Jesus Christ used, and he was the most effective healer ever.

Christian Science asks:

Which was first, Mind or medicine? If Mind was first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have been the first medicine. God being All-in-all, He made medicine; but that medicine was Mind. It could not have been matter, which departs from the nature and character of Mind, God. Mary Baker Eddy

The medicine of Mind can be taken whether in a hospital or not. It’s free for the asking, and there are no negative side effects. Could it be time for a change?

The greater force?

I will be truthful.

I will suffer no injustice.

I will be free from fear.

I will not use force.

I will be of good will to all men.

~Mahatma Gandhi

Gandhi may not have relied upon the “force” of guns and violence, but he did rely upon the force of divine Love and Principle—and history proved them to be much more effective.

Has he set an example our world can learn from today?

“The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love is the liberator.” Mary Baker Eddy

Learning to love

Leo Buscaglia wrote thirteen books, most on the subject of love. At one time, five of his books appeared on the New York Times best-seller list concurrently. His writings have sold over 18 million copies, and his first book, “Love,” was a continual best seller for twenty years.

Excerpt from an interview:

Veronica: Would you tell us about your very famous "Love Class" and how it got started?

Dr. Buscaglia: I started my Love Class as a result of the suicide of
one of my most talented students. She showed no sign of her despair. Then one day she took her life. I had to ask, "What's the good of all our learning, knowing how to read and write and spell if no one ever teaches us the value of life, of our uniqueness, and personal dignity?" So I started my Love Class.

Can you relate? It happens frequently. People focus their time and energy on getting smart, being a successful businessperson, earning a larger wage, buying a bigger house…and they succeed, but eventually stop one day and ask, “What do I have to show for my effort that really matters? What gives life real joy and purpose? Is it the things I have, or something more I’ve missed along the way?”

Life is love…

Dr. Buscaglia: The essence of love is getting out of oneself and into others. When we care less about our feelings, our rights, our happiness, our security, etc., and begin to concern ourselves with the feelings, rights, happiness, and security of others, we will have found the true power of love.

Scroll down to the end of the interview and take the Love Quiz.

Did you pass the test for today?

Your right place

An article titled “Our place,” printed in the Christian Science Journal, Vol. I, #5, December 1883.

I believe that God has given to everyone a place, and in this harmonious creation there is no void, – nothing left out, nothing lacking, - so we might as well try to breathe without air, or think without mind, as to think we can rotate out of the divine order of being, or take any place other than our own. Others may try to usurp us; they may try to be like us; they may move earth, and apparently heaven, to gain our position; but when God has placed us there, we are there, and naught can move us out of this our rightful inheritance.

If this were understood, many warfares would cease; envy and jealousy be exchanged for the peaceful gleams of joy and gratitude; and, mingling with the light of love, would bring to man new health and happiness, – yea, Life immortal. We never see the stars vjeing for each other’s places, nor the sun and the moon at variance; nor have we seen a Paul take Peter’s place, or John the place of our Master, or vise versa. Each fills its own, her own, or his own place, whether they have knowledge of it or not; and I, for one, would be content in the sweet consciousness that I have a place with Thee, eternal Love; and however grand or great, humble or small, I am of thy creation; therefore thine. ~ PIONEER

Objects in the mirror

From Lew’s lines on the Sermon on the Mount:

I think often of the words that are on the passenger side mirror of my car that say “Objects in mirror may be closer than they appear.” Though we hear of wars in foreign lands and have great concern for our borders, we can take a warning from what we can see that perhaps the battles and the issues are closer than we may want to know…

While we are quick to think that Al Qaeda is our enemy and that political agenda would be our resolve. We must realize that our battle is far closer than we think, for our mirror tells us that our battle is first in our heart, and secondly in our relationships. Lewis Sterret

Lewis Sterret combines Sermon on the Mount preaching with tips on how to train horses. Based in New York State, his Miracle Mountain Ranch Missions is a leader in the field of camp horsemanship.

I do not agree with several of Lew’s fundamentalist Christian sentiments, but I did find the above concept very helpful in putting world conflict into perspective. With thousand of miles separating most people from the Middle East, its tempting to think “the problem” is far away. But it is not. It’s in the heart of humanity, the seedbed of all human motive and action.

Our prayers to understand one Father/Mother over all, and all people united in one family under God, build bridges with our neighbors. It inspires ways to work together, to love one another, to value, respect and honor people no matter how different their culture and customs.

Settling conflict around the world begins with settling conflict in our own heart.

Let the peace process go forth!

“One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is
wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.” Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p. 340.

Healing of eye injury

A testimony I had printed in the Christian Science Sentinel and is now posted on spirituality.com:

“Last fall during warm-up for a morning tournament tennis match, I was hit squarely in one eye with a tennis ball. The impact threw me to the ground in acute pain. I clenched my eye for fear of loss as I remembered that one of the resident pros had lost an eye in a similar way. When I opened my eyelid, I could not see and the pain worsened…”

Click here for the rest of the story.

The buzzard, the bat and the bumblebee

Forwarded from a reader:

BUZZARD
If you put a buzzard in a pen that is 6 feet by 8 feet and is entirely open at the top, the bird, in spite of its ability to fly, will be an absolute prisoner. The reason is that a buzzard always begins a flight from the ground with a run of 10 to 12 feet. Without space to run, as is its habit, it will not even attempt to fly, but will remain a prisoner for life in a small jail with no top.

BAT
The ordinary bat that flies around at night, a remarkably nimble creature in the air, cannot take off from a level place. If it is placed on the floor or flat ground, all it can do is shuffle about helplessly and, no doubt, painfully, until it reaches some slight elevation from which it can throw itself into the air. Then, at once, it takes off like a flash.

BUMBLEBEE
A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies, unless it is taken out. It never sees the means of escape at the top, but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists, until it expires.

PEOPLE
In many ways, humans are like the buzzard, the bat, and the bumblebee. They struggle about with all their problems and frustrations, never realizing that all they have to do is look up.

Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but faith looks up.


Where are you looking today?

Losing a fear to love

Have you ever heard or felt the sentiment--“I’m afraid to love anymore because I don’t want my heart broken again”?

God is Love, and it’s a spiritual right and liberty of every one of God’s children to be filled with love, to feel loved and to love others without hesitancy.

So how do we conquer the fear of loss that would hold us back from experiencing a life of over-flowing, unstoppable, and unquenchable affection?

Understanding the nature of true love helps.

If we set conditions on our love, we set ourselves up for possible loss. Affection destroying questions loom like, “What if the other party doesn’t live up to our expectations? What if they act contrary to my desire? What if they don’t return the favor?” What-ifs roll over our mental turf like threatening military tanks causing us to withhold kindness.

True love gives without expecting anything in return.

Use the sun as a model for giving love.

The sun shines upon one and all without regard to who is being blessed and what they will do with the blessing. The sun just shines. It doesn’t ask “What will the people do with my shine? Will they make good use of it? Will they return the gift? Will they care?” The sun shines. That’s what the sun does, and it thrives in doing what it was created to do.

Love loves. Love doesn’t ask, “What will the loved do with my love? Will they love me back? Will they care? Will they be my friend?” Love gives without qualification and without conditions. There are no strings attached to true love.

Jesus said,

“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.”

There is huge freedom in loving others like God loves us, unconditionally and impartially. We never fear loss, because our gain is not what we get back from the one we bless. The gain is in the comfort, peace and joy we find within from loving unselfishly.

The best Life has to offer is not in what we get from others. It comes from living true to our God-given individuality of expressing unqualified love.

God did not create us to live isolated, lonely lives. God created us to love.

As we shower others with kindness in the same way God showers love on us, our individuality blossoms and prospers. We do not ask “What will the other person do?” before we love them. We ask, “How can I love them better?”

The block of ice that forms around the human heart afraid to love melts away as one realizes that love does not come from another person and therefore cannot be taken away by them. Love is God, and we find this Love in living true to our spiritual self,--our loving self.

It doesn’t matter what others do, say or think. Their opinions or actions do not affect the love coming from above that truly warms the heart, melts the hardened character and turns an otherwise dreary impoverished mortal existence into an oasis of bubbling spiritual joy and affection.

When our goal with love is to give unselfishly, not expecting anything in return, we will never fear a broken heart again, for there is no vulnerable affection held inside to be broken in the first place. Our affections are pure, centered on the spirituality we give, not on recognition hoped to receive.

Love that never ends

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit.

~Peter Ustinov

Courage

Do you have the courage of a hummingbird?

Reportedly, the speedy flickers have scared off eagles from devastating their nests. How the little twitters could send a proportionately monstrous bird like an eagle in the other direction sounds incredulous, but it has happened.

Patricia Upczak, in her article, “Joyful courage,” gives several examples of courage in action that changed the world. She points out that courage is not according to worldly position, stature, or prominence, but according to joyful delight in living a life of integrity.

With the many injustices facing the world today, we all could benefit from mustering more courage of the right sort to face down evil.

Take a look. I’ll think you’ll enjoy her examples of courage in action.

“Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to proclaim the right.” Mary Baker Eddy

Where are you looking?

If you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point.

~Antonio Porchia

Blanket of belief

One day before last Christmas I was wrapping some presents for the family in my wife’s sewing room. I heard intruding footsteps coming down the hallway, so in desperation to protect the anonymity of my yet unwrapped gifts I threw a large blanket over the items. My son enters the room, asks me a question, looks around, sees nothing significant to his eyes and harmlessly leaves. Whew! No secrets disclosed.

Mortal mind often acts in the same way, throwing mental blankets over spiritual realities to keep us from seeing the spiritual truth. Has this ever happened to you?

In this week’s Bible Lesson, we have the story of Eutychus falling from a high window ledge. Paul is preaching into the wee hours of the night, and Eutychus loses interest, nods off, falls asleep and tumbles from the third loft in the room Paul’s group occupies. Hitting the ground with an assumed thud, he is pronounced dead by those around him.

Paul, however, is not so quick to jump to unfortunate conclusions. He goes over to the dead body, embraces it and declares amazingly to the group, “Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.” Eutychus comes back to life and all is well.

What did Paul see that no one else saw?

“His life is in him!” He proclaimed.

Paul saw Life, where everyone else saw death. The others' belief that Eutychus had to suffer from his fall, and in this case the penalty of death, was so strong and pronounced in their thought that they quickly concluded Eutychus was dead, and that is exactly what they saw and experienced.

Paul, however, knew Life was in God, in Spirit. “His life is in him,” could be reworded “His life is in Him (in God),” safe and sound out of the reach of matter.

Paul knew Eutychus’ life had not fallen to the ground and become injured. Eutychus’ life was God, and God is forever alive. Eutychus’ life AS God, was still alive and well.

Can we all learn to be like Paul and see the spiritual reality in face of the material error? I ask.

Paul’s understanding of spiritual truth yanked away the blanket of belief mortal mind had cast on the group’s thought and revealed to them the truth that right where they saw a dead body there was an alive Eutychus. And the results confirmed his conviction.

How often does mortal mind cast a blanket of false belief over a spiritual reality in our experience?

For example, have you ever been upset by someone who is hard to get along with? Perhaps the amenable and good-nature of that person has been covered by a belief of stubbornness or intransigence. It's an opportunity to strip that covering away in thought and see God’s agreeable child behind it.

Have you ever seen so much lack and debt you gave up hope of solvency? Perhaps its time to strip away the imposter blanket of belief called limited supply and inadequate ability. Behind the picture of poverty is a wealth of riches waiting to be utilized.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by a sickness? Again, it’s a blanket of mental error trying to hide the healthy you from being seen and felt.

Beliefs can be as opaque in thought to a correct mental view as a thick black blanket thrown over an object to the human eye.

So, when situations look dreary and hopeless, let’s not be so quick to jump to despairing conclusions. God is good, and God is all. We live right smack dab in the middle of God’s unfathomable goodness and greatness. If we aren’t seeing it, it’s not because it isn’t there. It’s time to jerk the blanket of false belief off of the spiritual reality and see the living truth thriving right in front of our eyes.

“His life is in him.” Your health is in you. Your wealth is deposited. Your generous nature is intact…. What more can you add?

Ban unhealthy thoughts

A movement has swept the United States over the last 15-20 years banning the smoking of cigarettes in public places.

Last night I remembered what it was like to fly on airplanes in the days when passengers could puff away on the obnoxious things and inflict their bad habit on helpless victims sitting at their side. At dinnertime, my family was rejoicing over the progress our society has made in protecting citizens from the harmful acts of others in public places where all people need to congregate healthily together and not fear each other’s actions.

Like a lightbulb turning on, it occurred to us that in the same way communities have realized the harm done by cigarette smoke, they’ll also realize the harm done by hate, anger and malice. “Won’t there come a point when these types of evil thinking will be banned from public environments too?” We wondered.

Wouldn’t that be cool!? Sighting signs at the front door of businesses that declare, “No angry thoughts allowed inside.”

I think it’s going to happen someday.

As Christian Science leavens human consciousness around the world helping citizens realize that we live in a world of thought and every thought matters, people are going to become more conscious about what they think and what others think around them. Just like neighbors are realizing the deadly effects of air-borne nicotine, they will eventually realize the baneful effects of mind-borne anger and hate. There will come a point when people striving to live healthy happy lives will not tolerate evil attitudes in public venues anymore. Evil intent will be banned from the marketplace of thought.

Evil thoughts are not a threat to our well being when we properly defend our mental precincts with the spiritual truth that God, good reigns, and there is no evil power. As Mary Baker Eddy wrote,

“Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one’s belief permits.” Science and Health

But the proper defense must be mounted and maintained.

As she continued to write,

“Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.”

I think it’s time to start building that “strong defence” on behalf of the public good! No more anger and hate in the public square.

Our schools for young children could certainly benefit.

What do you think?

Mindless nibbling

Have you ever done it? Open a bag of potato chips while reading a book and chomp your way through the whole package until the last chip is gone? Oops…Maybe a few chips too many??

In the comment section of my blog entry, “Smaller portions of food,” posted last Sunday, reader Cindy commented about certain foods being produced with a goal of getting the consumer to mindlessly eat their way through the snack.

I asked Cindy for some background information and she supplied the following quote from the text “Strategic Management Concepts and Cases,” by Thompson and Strickland. It’s from a case study of PepsiCo's Acquisition of Quaker Oats in the section that talks about the acquisition of Cracker Jack.

I think you’ll be interested in reading the quote:

A Frito-Lay executive who championed the acquisition discussed the additional appeal of Cracker Jack: "We were missing out on 50 percent of the snacking opportunity because when people snack, they first decide whether to go for a salty treat or a sweet one." The executive also commented that the product met Frito-Lay's "mindlessly nibbling test" since "once you open the bag, you just keep eating them until they're gone."

Isn’t there an ad on the market right now for some snack about not being able to put the bag down until the last item is gone...?

For one who used to fight being overweight and tried not to eat until the last one was gone, I never could see the attraction behind such ads. I’ve since conquered that temptation with finding more spiritual contentment.

One lesson from the above is remembering that we have to think for ourselves in this world of advertising barrage and consumer driven marketing. We have to spiritually counter a mindless nibbling mentality that would lead us to “eat the whole thing” when we don’t need the empty calories.

In an effort to make wise decisions over gluttonous choices we can rejoice in knowing there is one Mind, the divine Mind, to guide and govern our eating behaviors.

We are not mindless robots programmed to err and overindulge. We are thinking beings designed to express the intelligence, wisdom and balance of God.

Soooo, mindless nibbling, be gone!

Don't give up

My son Tyler and I had a spiritually rich experience chopping wood together a month ago.

Wielding an axe is not one of my stronger talents, but Tyler was itching to swing the red-handled wedge, wanted someone to keep him company while he experimented for the first time, and we needed more firewood for the winter anyway. So out to the woodpile with two new axes in hand we walked.

Up until this point, I had minimal experience chopping wood, let alone swinging an axe properly.

With dozens of chunks of wood heaped to our side, I’d put one log on the chopping block at a time and made a swing. If the log split easily, I’d continue whacking. If the log didn’t budge, I’d cast it aside into my “stubborn log” pile and grab another one. Soon, the pile of stubborn unchopped logs was larger than the split wood. This was not a good sign!

I stopped and prayed about my lack of success with so many unbudging logs. Was this a model of action I wanted to perpetuate, and teach my son? I asked.

I thought about how many times in life people get tempted to give up on a worthy task. Rather than trying harder and looking for ways to be successful, they might give up and move onto another “log.”

For example, if a relationship is not working out, why not give up and go find another person? the tempter often suggests. Or if a health problem is not yielding readily to prayer, why not give up and seek a quick-fix material remedy? the tempter argues. Or if the debt keeps mounting, why not give up and admit it can’t be brought under control? again the tricky misleader wants us to conclude.

Did I believe in giving up so easily? Absolutely not! Giving up has never been my motto.

Jesus taught his followers to take up the cross before they could wear the crown.

Chopping wood is hardly a metaphor for taking up the cross, but actually, it was for me at the time. As I considered the bad example I was setting by letting my stubborn log pile grow, I had to sacrifice my self-righteous lazy attitude that I couldn’t chop those logs successfully and admit the job could be done.

I re-doubled my efforts. “With God all things are possible,” I uttered as I grabbed a stubborn log and re-poised it on the chopping block.

Before mindlessly whacking, I listened for a few moments on how to proceed. A voice within started giving me tips on how to approach unyielding logs.

I looked for cracks in the wood. Rather than hitting the log directly in the middle,--often the hardest place of all to start,--I aimed my iron for the edges on the weakest sides.

Wood started splitting in all directions. Success was mine! To my amazement, I chopped every single log in that stubborn pile and finished with one of the grandest feelings of personal triumph I’ve felt in a long time.

My son and I finished a cord of wood that day, and had to have our picture taken because it was a first for us!

Tyler is all ready to start chopping a second cord…and I’m actually looking forward to it. This is amazing!

Don’t give up. It’s not necessary.

Back off a bit from the trouble. Listen. Pray. Every stubborn issue has a vulnerable spot, a place to begin aiming the truth that cracks the problem wide open and disarms it to the delight of all.

Where to start your prayers

I often been told by people, “I have so many problems, I don’t know where to begin my prayers.”

I can relate to the feeling. If I made a list of all the errors of belief I’d like to see conquered today, the list might get fairly long and appear overwhelming to my sense of possibility.

The whole problem of working out our salvation, overcoming mortality and discovering Life eternal is not a flick-of-the-switch accomplishment. It requires major spiritual growth, patience, perseverance and consecrated humility at times to take a single step in the line of advancement. But none-the-less we have to start somewhere and knowing where to begin makes the journey much easier.

Mary Baker Eddy wrote

The author never knew a patient who did not recover when the belief of the disease had gone. Remove the leading error or governing fear of this lower so-called mind, and you remove the cause of all disease as well as the morbid or excited action of any organ. Science and Health, p. 377.

“Remove the leading error…” is wise counsel for knowing where to focus one’s prayers.

We do not have to solve all the problems of mortality in one fell swoop to be healed of a single disease. We do not have to conquer every fear and ill we face in order to be free of the pressing issue of the moment.

Step by step we get to where we need to be. Take one step at a time and you'll reach your destination.

What is the “leading error or governing fear,” of the moment? Focus prayer in that direction and you will make the quickest progress possible. And once that fear is gone, you’re ready to tackle the next one successfully.

(If you read my blog above on “Don’t give up,”…like chopping wood, one whack at a time in the most vulnerable spot, and the log splits.)

Protect yourself from malpractice

Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake. Mary Baker Eddy

I awoke early yesterday to read my Bible Lesson and metaphysically prepare for an active day. Part way through my study I suddenly started to feel very ill. My stomach began churning, my head ached and within two minutes a wave of sickness swept over me and tried to lock on. Mentally working to prevent further suffering, I turned to God in prayer and acknowledged one Mind governing my health and well being. In the one Mind, there is no sickness, no potential for sickness and no feeling of sickness, I affirmed.

While listening for further spiritual insight, I glanced at the clock and noticed it was 5 a.m. With no investigative effort of my own, I recognized that it was opening time for a business on the East coast that I had sent a letter to three days ago with a message that was written in a generous and supportive spirit, but could have been received in a negative light by the recipient. I wasn’t sure whether they were sympathetic to my message or not.

On the heels of this awareness, an angel thought told me to protect myself from mental malpractice. I remembered the quote printed above by Mary Baker Eddy, “…be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you….”

Whether the recepient of my letter was malpracticing me or not, I could not say. But I knew my health was going downhill fast, the momentum needed to be halted, and this divine admonition to protect myself vigorously was clamoring for attention. I've learned not to ignore such warnings.

Not knowing what harmful thought I may be protecting myself from, I prayed to know that no evil thought could penetrate my consciousness. There is only one Mind, I affirmed again, and the one Mind was my Mind. Malice has no power and no influence over the activity of the one Mind, and therefore had no power or influence over my thinking. I was safe in the omnipresence of divine Love.

As long as it took to pray the above truth, the sickness lifted and vanished like it never existed.

I’ve had these types of experiences before, and each time I learn again the value and importance of defending myself from mental malpractice from abroad. I often do not know what the source of the evil intent is, but it doesn't matter. Evil has no power whatever form it pretends to take, and the need of prayer is to know this spiritual truth clearly. God is the only power.

Jesus told us to “Watch!” He meant watch for good, for spiritual mindedness lest evil overwhelm our sense of things.

Mary Baker Eddy was adamant in her teachings that her students should actively and daily defend themselves from mental malpractice. She was so convinced of this necessity she included a by-law titled “Alertness to Duty” in the governing document of her Church that states

It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind.

Our duty to God is to remain spiritually minded, bearing witness to the omnipresence of divine Love and the omnipotence of the one Mind wherever we go and in whatever we do.

When we faithfully know one God, one power of good, we become a law unto ourselves that protects our mental sanctuary from outside malicious influence.

Stay alert! Be on guard—for the Truth! And you will be protected too.

Living an uncluttered life

My wife panics when I get into a serious cleaning mode. I don’t like clutter. I easily part with things that sit around unused. I can sort through a closet jammed with clothes, books, trinkets, and other dust-catching objects and discard the majority of it with ease leaving clean sparsely covered shelves behind to hold the items we really need.

My wife doesn’t have a problem with getting rid of material possessions. That’s her mantra too. She’s just worried I’ll throw out the wrong things. Like “her” things! Aw, the price we pay to keep a light load around the household.… We make a good team.

In his article, “The ‘Real’ Simple Life,” Matt Bell describes a sentiment many people are discovering these days as they work to live an uncluttered existence.

He wrote,

Not long ago, a good friend went through his closet and gave away literally half of his clothes. Rather than missing the items, he feels a new sense of freedom.

In a recent Town & Country magazine article, Jane Hammerslough
describes a similar experience. A roof repair gone wrong forced her family to frantically pack what they could and move to a small, sparsely furnished rental house for six months. She writes of their surprise that they didn't miss much of what they had left behind. Rather than feeling depressed or deprived due to their "hideous living room" and "mismatched plates," they felt liberated. And when they returned home, she felt "overwhelmed by the utter excess of stuff." A purging of things soon followed. She concluded that "when 'enough' is always just a little more than you already have, you don't have a lot of room left for the truly great pleasures of life: family, friends, and the time to enjoy them.

He ends with the summary

In our materialistic, marketing-saturated world, simplicity isn't, well, so simple. But as Richard Foster points out, it begins on the inside with the attitudes of our hearts and minds. And those attitudes are cultivated through prayer and meditation on the truth of God's Word.

I recommend reading the whole article. It’s very enlightening on how to catch the spirit of living a truly simple life.

Smaller portions of food

My wife, Kathy, recently started buying bread in smaller loaves. The kids and I looked at the miniature sandwich slices and complained about their tiny size. Kathy pointed out that when she was a kid, all bread slices were that size, and we had gotten in the habit of thinking humongous pieces of bread were normal rations.

Ouch! She got us.

Thinking back to my bread-eating habits of yore, I realized she was right. What used to be “normal” in food helpings years ago is now considered small. And what is considered a normal sized ration today would have been considered outright gluttonous 3 decades ago.

I’ve known this lesson for years in other ways. My wife and I routinely share meals at restaurants because of the gargantuan amounts served, and our family as a whole eats quite modestly. But the bread slice lesson was an eye-opener for me.

With the obesity epidemic sweeping the globe, it can be helpful to stop and ask oneself when preparing to eat, “Do I need to eat this much food?”

Jesus taught, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled.” Integrating this admonition into my lifestyle helped me lose 30 pounds over 20 years ago, and permanently so.

With the vast temptations to overeat being served to us from all directions these days, I still pray to know what keeps me genuinely filled. And thanks to my wife, I can see in another degree that it’s not large slices of bread we need, but a growing commitment to understanding God better and keeping my thought filled with spiritual mindedness.

It’s a diet that works.

Shaping up from within

I haven’t read Victoria Moran’s book “Fit from within,” but I like some of the ideas she has to share on losing weight without diets by integrating a spiritual component.

She wrote in part:

The people I know who maintain weight losses indefinitely and who do so without anxiety, are those who have, in whatever way fits their own religious and philosophical sense of things, surrendered their eating and weight issues to some Higher Power. This is not the same as promising God you'll never overeat again, nor is it making deals, begging and pleading, or acting pitiful in hopes of receiving divine pity. (If you've done those things, you know how poorly they work.)

Instead, including a spiritual component is simply knowing when you're
up against something that is too much for you and your best intentions to handle on your own. It's realizing where you're weak and depending on something strong, whether you think of that as God in heaven or a Power that, although beyond your human ego, resides inside yourself.

She also wrote with tongue-in-cheek:

Anybody who has been able to made a god out of a snack cake certainly has enough imagination to envision Someone who gave you the stars and the seasons, your son and your daughter.

As I read the above, I was reminded that true fitness is a state of Mind, of the divine Mind expressed through us. Any ideas that help us demonstrate more dominion in our thinking over the excesses of mortal mind that lead to excess on the body are going to benefit humanity’s effort to lose unnecessary extra weight.

Thank you, Victoria, for sharing your life experience in tackling a tough problem for many from a spiritual point of view.

God amidst the storm

Sent to me by a reader...


Ballad of the Tempest
By James Fields

We were crowded in the cabin,
Not a soul would dare to sleep,--
It was midnight on the waters,
And a storm was on the deep.

'Tis a fearful thing in winter
To be shattered by the blast,
And to hear the rattling trumpet
Thunder, "Cut away the mast!"

So we shuddered there in silence,--
For the stoutest held his breath,
While the hungry sea was roaring
And the breakers talked with death.

As thus we sat in darkness
Each one busy with his prayers,
"We are lost!" the captain shouted,
As he staggered down the stairs.

But his little daughter whispered,
As she took his icy hand,
"Isn't God upon the ocean,
Just the same as on the land?"

Then we kissed the little maiden,
And we spake in better cheer,
And we anchored safe in harbor
When the morn was shining clear.

Computer crashes and experts

At 5 a.m. this morning I sat down at my computer to blog for the day. I looked at the screen and my user account had vanished overnight along with all my documents, emails, and financial information. My eyes about popped out of their sockets. My heart started to race. I protested out loud. Everything gone! Vaporized! What had happened!

As I despondently clicked keys to figure out what went wrong, nothing happened. The information was flat gone, and was nowhere to be found.

I stopped floundering and took a moment to pray for guidance.

As I struggled with having a hugely wasted day ahead of me trying to fix the disaster, God gave me a better view. An angel lighted upon my thought and reminded me that no good thing could ever be taken from me. My life was not on that hard drive. My life was spiritual and everything about it was permanently inscribed into my being. Each bit of information I needed to function in my work was stored in divine Mind and was immediately accessible. I didn’t have to go through a computer to find it.

I calmed down. I relaxed. The tension and anger inside dissolved. I felt there was a way to save my day.

Now that I was in a fit mood to listen, I told God I still needed that information on my PC! How was I to get it?

God said, “Call an expert.”

I logged into the Microsoft help center to see what I could find, but honestly, I felt like I was walking through the Library of Congress looking for a book of which I didn’t even know the title.

God said it again, “Call an expert.”

I was reminded of Mary Baker Eddy’s instruction in Science and Health,

“If students do not readily heal themselves, they should
early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aid them.”

I could struggle for a day, maybe even days and weeks, trying to figure out a solution on my own. But why should I? I had other work I needed to be doing that I was an expert in, and fixing computer problems was not one of my specialties. I shouldn’t hesitate to ask for help when it serves to preserve a greater good, I decided. My flourishing in what I do best is where I needed to focus my energies. And letting others flourish where they do best was my honoring their God-given capacities and talents.

I was obedient.

With a few clicks I found a phone number to call. At 5:15 a.m., I located an expert over the phone ready to help me immediately, and he solved all my problems. And for only $35! I was soooo grateful.

It took 70 minutes to retrieve my lost data, but as my prayer had revealed earlier, nothing had been lost. For very unusual reasons, the files had been automatically archived to a place I would have never known to look. The expert did know where to look, and retreived it all. And now, all is well.

We don’t always need to call another person when we have a problem. God is the number one expert when it comes to finding solutions, and we always have His ear and helping hand. But if The Expert tells us to call another expert for assistance, then we’d better obey. Solutions often appear much quicker that way.

I’m grateful for experts.

Working your way to success

I learned a lot about success and failure from watching my dad farm. He made some huge miscalculations during his career. Like the time he bought a large piece of property out in the middle of wheat country and planted it to alfalfa. The neighbors sprayed herbicide for their wheat by plane, and the chemical drifted onto dad’s crops, stunting them severely and sending him almost into bankruptcy. Or the time we planted plum trees, spent tens of thousands of dollars nurturing them into bearing only to discover there was no market for the fruit. We had to rip out the orchards and start over.

Yet, for the big mistakes that were made, dad was a very successful farmer. He also made some very wise and good decisions along the way that far outweighed the errors.

In this human experience, mistakes happen. It’s part of our learning curve Spiritward. But we do not have to fear them, and we must not let them halt our efforts to improve, do better and try new ideas.

It’s said that Thomas Edison tried 10,000 times to make a light-bulb. When someone asked him how he felt about his many failures he replied, "I haven't failed. I've ruled out ways that don't work, that's all. Each try brings me closer to the one that will."

I like that. Ruling out ways that don’t work!

This doesn’t warrant careless behavior and reckless actions, but it does free thought to consider new possibilities and act on them without fearing the consequences. We can always change course as the way gets clearer.

God is an ever-present source of ideas, inspiration and guidance that keeps us heading in a progressive direction. As we listen, we hear, and the way may appear foggy at first, but as we march forward with an expectancy of good the path grows clearer, the fog lifts, and victory is ours.

“The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes the achievement possible.”

~Mary Baker Eddy

In the big picture, we don't fail. We eliminate options that don’t work! And that gets us closer to success.

No job too big

“Is the job too big, or your thinking too small?” a friend asked herself out loud to me recently when figuring out how to tackle a major project at her office.

It’s a good question.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed by work demands? Wondered how to get everything done before a dreaded deadline arrived?

August 2001 was a month when I was tempted to throw up my hands and declare I had more to do than I could handle.

With an unusual turn of events I suddenly faced a Mt. Everest sized proportion of critical decisions and activities that had to be finished within a three week period.

At the end of July 2001 I had been asked to work in Boston at my church’s world headquarters. I needed to sell our house in Washington State, buy a house in Boston (3000 miles away), move my family and report to work ASAP. I had a two week class to teach in the meantime. Unfortunately, my mom passed on in early August, and being the executor of her estate, I suddenly had the responsibility of speaking at her funeral, managing her possessions, selling her house, and buying another smaller house for her husband. On top of that I had to carry on my own full-time job which was very demanding. I was overwhelmed with things to do. I felt like I needed three of me to get it all done.

“With God, all things are possible,” I reminded myself daily.

Was the job too big or my thinking too small?

I prayed to get a limited personal sense of things out of the way.

From a human perspective, the work demands were daunting, to say the least. From a spiritual perspective, the work was done. God had the details already figured out.

Just like the principle of mathematics has solved every possible math problem we could ever face, the divine Principle of the universe, God, has already solved every human problem we ever face. My prayer was to yield to the divine plan and let it happen through me. The job was not too big for God.

In my prayers, I knew it was the one Mind that was going to coordinate the move of my family, sell and buy four houses, teach my class and heal my patients. The one Mind fully comprehends and knows all things. There is no lack of knowledge, no lack of understanding, fear or worry in the one Mind, I accepted. The one Mind was my Mind, and I could trust the guiding hand of the divine influence to coordinate all the activities before me in the best possible way for the most appropriate, timely, and efficient outcome.

I clung like adhesive bond to these truths, and events evolved in almost miraculous ways as every task was accomplished on schedule and to everyone’s satisfaction. All loose ends were tied up quickly, jobs finished and my family in Boston by the end of August. I took a deep breath of relief when finally reporting to my new job the first day, and very grateful to God.

What we cannot do, God can do.

If God can keep the planets in their orbits, and the seasons in their places, He can keep our workload under control and in order. Our prayer is to let it happen through us.

Is there any job too big for God? Not really. As we let God take over our thinking, He’ll figure out a way to get the work done.

Why work?

”The highest reward for a person’s toil is not what they get from it, but what they become by it.”

~John Ruskin

What needs to change?

The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.

~Albert Einstein

You can keep going

Have you ever felt depleted, exhausted, too tired to go on, or emptied of desire to continue the job before you?

A reader reported that when embarking on a mule ride down into the Grand Canyon, the lead wrangler warned all riders that when they got to the bottom, their mules would stop moving. He said the mules would not be tired—they could go another 30 miles—but he said “YOU are the one who will be tired, and they will sense that, slowing to a crawl and acting like they can’t take another step. He instructed all riders to keep their animals moving and not let them slow down.

When reaching the bottom, the reader said the mules halted just like predicted, but with an appropriate swat of determination from each rider to keep on going, the mules kicked back into gear and finished the trip.

When feeling exhausted, we often blame the body for the feeling of lack. Excuses come to mind like “My energy is all gone. I’ve worked too long. The task is too hard.” But how often is the real cause of depletion a drop in attitude and desire within, taking the form of, “I don’t want to do this anymore? I’m failing so might as well give up? I’d rather be doing something else? I don’t want to work so hard?”

My everyday work is very metaphysical, so I have no excuse for complaining of physical exhaustion, but I can relate to the feeling of mental depletion leading to physical exhaustion from playing in tennis tournaments.

I’ve noticed that when I’m winning, I have no end of energy to finish the game, no matter how long it takes. But twice, in the past, when losing severely, somewhere mid-game I can remember becoming so tired and weary that I didn’t think I could even finish.

What was the difference between feeling great when winning and exhausted when losing?

During those two times when I caught myself dragging around on court, I did argue my way back to strength and energy. I realized that the weariness in my body was not physical at all. It was weariness in thought from being worn down by intimidation and fear of my opponent’s superior skill and talent.

I thought about what Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health:

“Without mind, could the muscles be tired? Do the muscles talk, or do you talk for them? Matter is nonintelligent. Mortal mind does the false talking, and that which affirms weariness, made that weariness.”

My body was not tired, I reasoned. My thought was tired, and I needed to remember the spiritual reasons why I was playing the game in the first place.

My goal was not to beat my opponent. My goal was to tangibly express ability, intelligence, coordination, grace and skill in an athletic endeavor. These goals remained the same whether or not I had the most points.

While remembering the spiritual purpose of my game, I was able to put distress about losing out of my mind and regain my energy and strength. Both times I finished my games in fit healthy shape, ready to play again.

The physical body often acts like the mules at the bottom of the Canyon trail. It balks, halts, limps along and complains making us think we can go no further. If misled in our conclusions we believe the body is the complainer, when actually it’s our tired thought objectifying itself into the condition of the body.

So, the moral of the story is—no more mule thinking!

Exercise your God-given authority to be well and strong at all times, remembering the spiritual motive behind your task to begin with that keeps the body in its proper place of being ruled, and not being the ruler!

Happy trails.

The light within

A prayer from worldprayer.org

May the long time sun
Shine upon you,
All love surround you,
And the pure light within you
Guide your way on.

~kundalini yoga

Be a blessing to others

"Having someone who understands is a great blessing for ourselves. Being someone who understands is a great blessing to others."

~ Unknown

Speaking with authority

Yesterday, I was working in my home office while 5 children were playing in our yard on the back side of our house. I launched out of my chair to their play area when I heard a hostile dogfight erupt from their playground. Jetting through the patio door I came upon 2 dogs in a vicious brawl surrounded by little children trying to break it up. Teeth were flashing, blood dripping, and a renegade dog was going for the throat of our 16 year old Labrador retriever. The situation was urgent and needed to stop immediately.

Not wanting to lose a hand or finger I refrained from grabbing the animals, but loomed over them and commanded them verbally to halt. “Stop fighting now!” bellowed out of my mouth. The aggressor instantly halted his attack. Our golden Lab relaxed and the aggression ceased. Instantaneously! And that was the end of the fight.

The effect of those three short words was so powerful and so immediate I was caught by surprise, and so were the children. A holy moment of awe followed as we all stood in brief silence to comprehend how quickly the fight had dissolved.

I’ve witnessed many dog fights over the decades, but have never seen one end with a brief command.

“Peace, be still,” Jesus commanded to the storm, and the violent winds ceased.

I thought about passages in the New Testament where it was reported that Jesus spoke with authority.

After Jesus cast a devil out of a wild-minded man, the crowd was awed by the spiritual power Jesus was able to exercise over evil spirits.

When I came back into the house, I asked myself why the dogs had responded so quickly.

As I inventoried my thought I found a conviction within that it was right for the violence to stop. When I spoke, there was no fear in my voice. I was not unsure about my command. I knew God’s creatures were meant to dwell in harmony with each other.

It wasn’t the words that came out of my mouth that stopped the attack. It was the spiritual conviction and understanding behind the words that neutralized the aggression. The evil influence over the animals’ thought was instantly destroyed and they ceased fighting.

Jesus gave all his followers power to cast out evil spirits. I definitely had a taste of what it feels like to exercise that absolute sovereignty yesterday, and look forward to similar experiences in the future.

You too, can “speak with authority” today. Enjoy!

Maya Angelou's thoughts on growing older

In April, of last year, Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 74th birthday. Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older. And, there on television, she said it was "exciting," and went on to share some of the reasons why.

Angelou is quoted as saying:

I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights.

I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.

I've learned that making a "living" is not the same
thing as "making a life.

I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's
mitt on both hands; you need to be able to throw some things back.

I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.

I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone.People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

Are you an advocate or an accuser?

Mister Rogers inspired millions with his childlike faith, love and trust in the goodness of others. “How could he be so kind?” many have wondered.

Amy Hollingsworth, author of “The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers,” commented in an interview on Beliefnet

Probably the central tenet of his faith and the theme of the Neighborhood is just the idea of loving your neighbor. When I asked him who is your neighbor, he said, whoever you happen to be with at the moment. So right there, there’s no loophole—that means we have to love everybody.

He said, once you realize that everybody’s your neighbor, you have a choice. You can either be an advocate or an accuser. An accuser is somebody who only sees what’s awful about themselves so they look through those eyes and look for what’s awful about their neighbor. An advocate is somebody who looks through the eyes of God at their neighbor and sees what’s good about that person because they’re created in God’s likeness. That’s a very simple, basic truth, but to live that out in our daily lives is tremendously difficult.

The words, “An accuser is somebody who only sees what’s awful about themselves…” jolted my attention. Paul wrote similarly in the book of Romans,

Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

I asked myself, “If I see awful things in others, does that mean I am seeing awful stuff in myself?”

This is not cool. Mental red flags started to wave. A whole new view of how to view judgementalism surfaced in my thought.

I concluded that anytime I see something bad in another, I’m really saying I need to quit seeing the same bad in myself.

Last night I played tennis with someone who got very down on himself when he started to lose. I was dismayed, and a bit angry, at his sinking attitude the nearer we got to the end of the game. It was not good sportsmanship.

This morning I realized that I allow the same type of demoralization to occur in my own thinking at times when I perform poorly. I judge myself harshly for not doing as well as I’m capable. I don't get upset with others, but with myself. “This needs to stop,” I proclaimed.

After reading Mister Rogers’ comment about objectifying into others what we see in ourselves, I decided to quit getting down on myself, no matter how much I need to improve. I must always be a mental force for positive, uplifting, unconditional, nonjudgmental healing love. I need to be a consistent advocate for the good person God created me to be, and not let the accuser of mortal mind fog my view by pulling thought downward into error.

Each of us can choose what side we’re going to take today—the role of advocate or accuser.

Which side shall it be for you?