Health, not disease

An interesting concept regarding the measurement of health and disease came to my attention recently.


I’ve read in a number of places that cold cannot be measured. There is no such thing as cold. What we call cold is less heat, for in actual fact we measure heat, not cold. The less heat in the air the colder it feels. Cold as an entity does not exist any more than darkness, for cold is the absence of heat, not the presence of something else.


Christian Science explains that disease is not real. Just as darkness is the absence of light, illness is the supposed absence of health.


Yet, how often do people try to measure and find disease as if it’s a reality? They ask questions like, “How ill am I? What disease do I have? How bad is it?”


The healthier spiritual approach to curing illness is to turn away from the evil sensation producing the sickness to the presence of health. Health is the cure.


From a spiritual point of view, disease cannot be measured for there is none to quantify. Rather than asking, “How sick am I?” We should be responding with, “How healthy did God make me?”


What appears to be disease is a state of mortal belief crying out to see more health.


When you stand in a cold room, you think about turning up the temperature,--getting more heat into the atmosphere.


The same rule applies to curing disease. To get rid of disease, it doesn’t help to study disease and treat it as if it were a reality. It’s more productive to study health and fill consciousness with the spiritual truth that displaces the sense of disease.


As Mary Baker Eddy, a phenomenally successful Christian healer wrote,


“A physical diagnosis of disease — since mortal mind must be the cause of disease — tends to induce disease.”


As light dispels darkness, health dispels disease. Health is our spirituality manifest, qualities of Truth and Love that God freely imparts through us.


As we pray for the Mind of God to be our Mind, and let Truth and Love take over our perspective, fears, anxieties, and false beliefs that lead one to believe disease is real, disappear. And the disease vanishes too.


Disease can’t be measured anymore than darkness can be quantified. It’s an unreality. Health is the reality, and we all have been spiritually endowed with it to the fullest. It’s our divine birthright!

Helping others

People who give of themselves unselfishly make this world a better place to live for everyone.



A reader forwarded me a link to a short video clip about the Spartan Sparkles Cheerleaders. Because of the generosity, care and compassion of two very capable cheerleaders, a large group of other young ladies, who many in the world would erroneously classify as disabled, get to experience special joys and liberties of life that they otherwise probably would never have.


Click here for the video, “Spartan Sparkles Cheerleaders,” and be patient while a 17 second ad runs first.

Thanksgiving

I am grateful to God today!


When I awoke at 5:15 this morning, I immediately asked, “What am I grateful for today?”

I listed all the obvious blessings such as my healthy and happy family, my trustworthy and responsible teenagers, a safe place to live, an active practice that gives my worklife incredible meaning and purpose. I was grateful to be a citizen in a country where one can speak their mind and not fear being thrown into prison. I was grateful for the warm sunshine in the middle of the day and hours of peace to rest by at night. My list of things to be thankful for was very long.


But then I thought about the millions of people who were not experiencing many of the earthly blessings I posted on my mental list of reasons to give thanks. My heart went out to those struggling to pay the bills, desperate for a place to live, scraping by just to put food on the table, unable to find a job, and worried about their health. I even considered the question, “What if I was in their shoes today? Would I be as grateful?”


And that’s when I revised my gratitude list. I thought back over my life and could think of times when I was struggling, perhaps panicked about paying bills, looking for a place to live, afraid I wasn’t going to find a job, and in the depths of a health threat. Through it all, though, there was always my faith in God that got me through those challenging periods and brought me to a solution that resolved the threat and moved me ahead to something better.

And with that realization, my reasons for rejoicing lifted up to the highest of heights, above thankfulness for earthly comforts and pleasurable human relationships, to God.

Above all I was grateful to God, because when everything falls apart in the world, relationships self-destruct, money flees, dreams are crushed and human hopes fade, there is still our Father-Mother divine Love watching out for us, taking care of us, and ensuring our eternal spiritual life.

Things of the world flee, without a doubt, but the eternal love of God that sustains and maintains us without fail, is forever.

I’m grateful to God today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Reasons to be grateful

It’s two days to Thanksgiving Day here in the US. It’s a holiday that reminds us to remember the things that we have to be grateful for, small and large, and there are many.


It’s been a tough year for millions of people struggling to make ends meet in a recessionary economy. When faced with mounting debt, unemployment, and looming rental payments, it can be hard to find reasons to be grateful. But there is always something good to notice and acknowledge no matter how dire circumstances appear.


Hidden behind the dashed hopes and crushed dreams of the human mind is God’s hand at work bringing one to a better place than occupied before. It takes humility to discern what God is doing, and faith to accept a new order for our life, but when we listen and follow, trusting the divine plan to unfold, we leave the old behind and walk toward the new and improved.


One of you sent in a link to an article titled, “Recession gave me a new opportunity.” The piece tells about people who have risen from the ashes of despair and loss to regain composure and new direction in life. It’s a nice report, and reminds us to look for the opportunity, see the possibility, not to get hung up on the loss, and move forward to the gain. I thought you might enjoy reading it.


Happy Thanksgiving.

What are you looking at?

As you ramble on thru life, brother,

Whatever be your goal,

Keep your eye upon the doughnut,

And not upon the hole!

~ Optimists' Creed

 

The church of Spirit

I’m going to worship in the church of Spirit today. Oh, what a delightful place to be!


The church of Spirit is not a place on this earth, a building of stone, or a portal on the Internet. The church of Spirit is a state of divine Mind that knows no bounds, no roof or ceiling, no walls or confines.


The church of Spirit is God’s glory, heavenly Love, powerful Truth and deep profound peace. It’s a super inspired state of thought that is so brimming over with love that it knows no fear, worry or doubt. It does not fret or toil. It is not wrestling with challenges and conflicts. It is not in the world trying to figure out solutions to human problems. It is in the Spirit where Life is the solution!


There are no empty pews in this church. There are no cavernous tombs, relics of days gone past, musty smelling curtains, and time-worn carpets. There are no unpleasant sensations, no mournful outlooks, and no sentimental attachment to ways things used to be. There is only the newness of Life inspiring thought to greater heights of revelation, total release of the earth and its burdens, and freedom. Freedom!


Oh, what freedom one finds in the church of Spirit! It’s all joy and buyoant hope there, awesome beholding of grand and sweeping views of spiritual reality.


There is no material thought-taking, no human angst, ire, anger or resentment. No harsh judgment, no criticism, suspicion, or disparagement in the embrace of this church. Just freedom, glorious freedom from all the burdens of believing life could be anything other than pure existence in Spirit.


Church. It’s not a material place. It’s the omnipresent love of God felt and known to the core of our being. It’s a profoundly calm and holy space to occupy. It’s a most wonderful place to worship God, the creator, source and supplier of the universe. It’s all we could ever wish for, hope to have or experience to bring us into the presence of the Divine. It is the presence of heaven, our home with God, and I can’t imagine any other place I’d rather be.


P.S. I’m still going to drive across town and regularly worship with my neighbors at a local congregation of fellow seekers of truth. But I’m not going to arrive at the site, walk into the building and see less than ideal conditions and ask “Where is church?” I’m going to bring it with me.

Enjoy going to Church today!

Keep your kitchen clean

This morning I found lessons in comparing the importance of keeping a clean thought to keeping a clean kitchen.


I asked, “Why do good cooks keep a clean kitchen?” And answered, “Because they don’t want the food they prepare to be spoiled.”

It’s not safe to prepare food in a filthy kitchen. A conscientious baker doesn’t want to roll out dough on a grimy counter. She doesn’t want to mix batter in dirty bowls, and is not pleased about storing salads and ingredients in a mold harboring refrigerator. It’s not sanitary.

A good cook has the know-how to prepare fabulous meals, but if the environment she has to work in is laden with foreign elements and lurking spores, chances of a final product turning out pure and perfect is greatly diminished.

The human consciousness is like a kitchen environment.


An individual may have the know-how to do great works, but if there are spoilers in the mental environment in which he thinks, the chances of a notable outcome are diminished.


What are the spoilers? They are anger, resentment, ire, grumpiness, selfishness, lack of commitment, distraction, pride and their associates. These negatives kill the leaven, spoil the meat and sour the drink.


We need to keep a clean thought just like we need to keep a clean kitchen.


We can have the best of intentions, but if the mental environment we work in is filled with foreign agents working against out best efforts, the final outcome is in doubt and difficult to achieve.

Before embarking on a major project or prayer, it’s healthy to start with a good scrub-down of thought to clean up the mental premises in which you work. Foreign elements need to be purged, thoughts not coming from God eliminated, and all negative attitudes dumped into the garbage can of no return.

Keep a clean kitchen today—a clean mental environment! And the tasks you perform in that workspace will turn out the best you could hope for.

No pain in immortality

A week ago, at the end of a very active work day, feelings of sickness started to suddenly take over. In minutes, I entertained the suggestion, “Oh no, here comes a horrible cold or flu and you are going to suffer for several days.” And my body felt as such.


Thankfully, I noticed what was happening in thought right away, and immediately prayed for relief. The physical sensation of inevitable suffering was strong, but I knew it was only a mental suggestion parading as a physical feeling, and it could be reversed with right spiritual thinking. So, I dug in my metaphysical heels, resisted the claims, and refuted them with spiritual truth.


I declared my health to be spiritual, fixed, permanent, and not susceptible to loss. It was coming from God, and still coming from God. There was no germ, bacteria or virus that could rob me of my health or temporarily weaken it. I had spiritual immunity from any cold or flu, and did not have to fear them.


In a short time, all the sickness symptoms vanished, for which I was grateful, but a horrible headache had set in and would not yield.


I went home for the evening, and continued my prayer for relief from the pain.


I went to bed early, but it didn’t help. In the middle of the night, I got up, went out to the living room and curled up in a quilt in my recliner and read the Bible Lesson for the week, which happened to be on the subject of “Mortals and Immortals.”


The main point I got out of the lesson was the distinction between mortals and immortals,--that God’s child is not a mortal. And that I was God’s child!


A mortal is never an immortal, and an immortal is never a mortal. Also, mortals do not transform into immortals. Mortals are false beliefs about God’s immortal child. And immortals are what God created.

I was an immortal! I was not a struggling mortal trying to find spiritual peace. I was an immortal already in spiritual peace.


I got it! The pain vanished. It was like turning off a switch. Boom! The pain was gone. My head was clear. I was at total peace. I felt heavenly. I felt spiritual. I felt totally well!


Oh, I'm so grateful for Christian Science. Its logic goes against all that the material senses reason, but its blessings are immense when its spiritual truths are caught sight of.
 To let go of mortality, to stop agonizing over how to heal a physical body when the need is simply for spiritualization of thought, to drop the notion of being a mortal and wholeheartedly accept one’s immortality, is the route to freedom—spiritual freedom, where pain is no more.


In a consciousness of immortality, there is no pain. All is peace.

The "I want" list

Do you have a list of “I wants?” Many people do.


I want a new IPOD. I want a new cell phone. I want a new car. I want new clothes. I want to earn more money. I want more respect. I want a spouse…and the list continues to grow.


Spending one’s days thinking about what one wants all the time is not an enjoyable way to live. It’s a feeling of lack constantly objectified. And the antidote is to replace the “I want something material…” with “I want to know God better. I want to grow spiritually. I want to express God better!”


When your “I want” list transforms from selfish pursuit to God-reflection, life is fun and pleasant. One doesn’t spend all day thinking about what he or she lacks, but rejoices in what he or she already has!


God has endowed you with the greatest assets life has to offer. And these assets are not material things that come and go. They are the riches of Spirit which put bounce in your step, light in your thought, purpose in your work, and hope into your future. They are the treasures of love, gratitude, peace of mind, spiritual mindedness and boundless joy.


So, instead of thinking about all the material things you don’t have, think about all the spiritual things you do have. And enjoy a most satisfying day.

Comments

I put word verification on my comments a couple of months ago to prevent automated spam comments from coming through. A reader recently noted that they had a hard time posting comments because of this. So, I'm wondering if anyone else has not been able to post because of the verification step.

Today, I took off the verification, so if you haven't been able to post comments because of it, I'd like to know. You should be able to post here with no problem.

Thanks.

No scapegoats for anger

Here’s a sobering truth to consider for anyone prone to getting angry at others:


Other people do not make you angry.


In my past travels, I was on a plane that arrived very late into the Salt Lake City airport. So late, that everyone missed their connecting flights and had to stay overnight in the city.


As over 200 passengers wearily filed off the plane and through the terminal, one irate woman pinned down an agent at a desk and lit into her with all kinds of unreasonable demands, spewing rage at being inconvenienced and not willing to listen to logic.


Everyone else dealt with the unplanned stay overnight calmly and civilly.

This woman, justified in her own mind, made quite an unpleasant scene, and accomplished nothing positive with her temper tantrum.


As I watched while standing in line, I thought, “This woman has a problem she needs to deal with. The agent did not make her angry. The airline did not make her angry. After all, everyone else is standing here, maybe mega-bummed, but not outwardly hostile. The world did not make her angry. Sin and selfishness made her angry. She is so caught up into herself and seeking her own comfort, that she's not seeing the imperative demand to love another as she would be loved back.”


Blaming others for one’s own anger is common.


Have you ever heard or uttered statements like, “My boss makes me so angry. My spouse gets me so upset. When I think about the politicians in control of the government I get so mad….” The list could grow quite lengthy.

Getting angry at others can be very sutble. For instance, I have a lot of books in bookshelves at home and in my office. I keep them neatly lined up in a straight edge along the front of each shelf.

A few days ago, someone dusted the shelves and without any appreciation for the order and alignment of the books, pushed them all out of place. When I first saw the squiggly mess, I felt a twinge of anger and protested internally that I would have to straighten them all out again! But I caught the anger, and I retorted, “Whoever dusted these shelves did not make you mad. Your sense of order was violated, and impatience with the disorder is what made you feel anger. Don’t blame another person for the anger! Love more and use this as an opportunity to cultivate more patience.”


Wow! What a freedom that thought brought. Instant forgiveness, peace and love quickly restored within. And no tense comments to anyone else in the household. I dealt with the tense feeling spiritually, and the effect was very good. Later, I made a kind and positive comment to another that will likely prevent the incident from being repeated. And everyone is still happy.


We are spiritual creatures designed to love. That’s our nature, to love! And no one can do anything or say anything offensive that takes that predisposition to love away from us.


When we blame another, we absolve ourselves of responsibility to get our own thinking straightened out with God. We live in a victim-world that feels helpless and even hopeless. And it’s all so unnecessary.


“Love thy neighbor as thyself,” is a rule for happy, healthy living. Love does not get mad at his neighbor, but sees the good in him, and honors that good by showing appreciation and gratitude for it.

Dissolving anger is a huge topic to address, but a good first step is to cease blaming others for it.


Enjoy a love-filled day.

Natural cures and the placebo effect

Here's a well written article on the placebo effect people experience from so-called "natural cure" remedies titled, "Placebo effect behind many natural cures."

The article begins:

People looking for natural cures will be happy to know there is one. Two words explain how it works: "I believe."...

Someday, the "experts" will see that all medicine is placebo, but until then, this growing recognition of the role mind plays in recovery is helpful to move thought away from looking to matter for healing, to divine Mind the source and sustainer of all health to begin with.

The food of contentment

I’ve learned a lot about dominion over eating by watching my son’s response to food over the years. He’s 16 today, and what I call a “slim-jim.” He’s always been thin and has never had food or eating issues.


He’s been an inspiration to watch because I was never the way he is. I was raised to eat everything on my plate, overeating was okay, stuffing yourself was normal on occasion, and so on. He has never believed any of this or accepted it. He has really been in touch with God on this subject.


What I’ve noticed in watching him is that he always stops eating when he’s full. It’s very simple for him. It doesn’t make any difference how much food is on his plate, what is being served, or even if his favorite dessert is available. He simply, flat out, will not eat it if he is full. And by "full" I don't mean stuffed or really full. I mean "just enough." He fills easily, with moderate portions of food. He will walk away from any food without giving it a second thought and not feel any loss at all if he figures he’s had enough to eat.


My explanation for his dominion over eating is the spiritual peace he feels within between himself and God. He does not equate happiness or contentment with material food. It’s a spiritual thing for him, not necessarily a conscious understanding, but a profound feeling he was born with that guides his decision-making in regards to food. He could “care less” about it, you might say. Food is definitely a “no-big-deal” for him.


I find major lessons about attitudes toward food in watching him. He lives out, without realizing it, Jesus admonition to “Take no thought about what you eat.” He doesn’t, either for pleasure or for entertainment. He has greater things to do with his life than idolize food.


And perhaps that is a key point—idolizing food.


To idolize food is to make a god of it—to bow down to it, honor it, worship it, fear it and live one’s life around it. This is a direct violation of the First Commandment, have no other gods than the one God.


When we focus immense attention on the content of food, the ramifications of what we eat, what to eat, what not to eat, and so on, haven’t we made food into a god? And it’s a god that is not God! So, what power is there in it? None!


I like my son’s attitude, and I’m still learning from it.


I like to cook. I like to try new recipes. I like to try new foods. I appreciate fine cooking. But sometimes, I have to stop and wonder, “Do I need to back off here and get my perspective on what real food is better in view?”


Food, the raw stuff that really matters, is not material. It’s spiritual. And when we find it in Truth, take it in, hold on to it and understand it, genuine contentment, satisfaction and joy settle into thought. It then becomes easy to walk away from the table. It’s easy to say no to unnecessary desserts. And it’s easy to not overeat.


Like my son, there are vastly more important things to do in life than take thought for food.


The food that leads to settled contentment comes from above and is built into our being. We’ve had it all along. God gave it to us. And there isn’t anything from the grocery store that can augment it.

Taking in spiritual food

Yesterday we began a discussion about looking at food from a spiritual point of view. Not looking at material food and trying to spiritualize it somehow. No-no… But we talked about spiritual food, the word of God, which nourishes us spiritually and meets human needs.


There is mega-attention given in society today to food from a material point of view,--what it contains, what it causes, the good, the bad, the ugly, and so on. But there is very little attention to food from a spiritual point of view. And this is the greater need.


Life is so much more than a conglomeration of carbohydrates, vitamins, proteins and amino acids. Life is spiritual. It’s sustained by Spirit, and is discovered in spiritual understanding.


When we are actively consuming spiritual truth, understanding our relationship to God better and finding peace about it, eating habits moderate, gluttony disappears, contentment settles in, and many more benefits appear that manifest themselves as healthy fit living.

Spiritual food is not material food looked at from a divine perspective. Spiritual food is spiritual truth, understanding, inspiration, enlightenment, divine consciousness and their kin.

When we take in spiritual food, we make better human choices and experience better effects.


For instance, my wife made this delicious “Clementine-vanilla bean quick bread” last weekend that came out of a Martha Stewart magazine. It was yummy. The problem was, I couldn’t stop with one piece. I wanted another and another and another… There was no satisfaction from eating it. In fact, each bite I ate, it made me want to eat more.


Has that ever happened to you?


It was a bit agonizing, because I began to reason, “What is the point? If it tastes really good, but I’m not satisfied after I eat a piece and only want more, was it really good for me?” I looked at the recipe and saw that it was loaded with sugar.


I did not eat endless pieces! I do have more dominion than that. But after a piece or two, I thought, I need to pray for spiritual contentment and specifically rebuke the belief that sugar has any kind of hold on my desires. I need to take in a heavy amount of spiritual truth to counteract this pull toward eating more of this sugar-laden bread.


I prayed to know that my contentment and happiness came from God, not from elated taste buds. I was already a complete whole being, feeling and expressing the fullness of God’s love, I affirmed, and found genuine happiness and contentment in knowing this truth. This truth was spiritual food, and sufficient to meet my need, I accepted.


A desire to keep eating the bread disappeared, and I was content without it.


And this is what I mean about consuming spiritual food and experiencing a good benefit from it. When we keep our thought inspired and enlightened we are much less likely to fall into mindless traps of the carnal mind that lead to poor eating habits and undesirable choices.


Contentment, joy, satisfaction, wholeness, fullness, health and fitness are qualities of God, expressions of divine Mind, and they come direct from God, not from anything we put in our mouth.


When we are filled with spiritual food—when our consciousness is filled up with heavenly inspiration—we won’t be reaching for something that cannot satisfy and mindlessly absorbing that which does us no good.

Are you reaching for spiritual food today?

What are you eating today?

Last September, I wrote a number of blogs that centered on a spiritual approach to making wise food choices. The posts inspired a vigorous and lively discussion among readers on the topic and left me believing there was still a whole lot more that could be said on the subject!


Another approach to the topic I’d like to take is looking at food from the opposite point of view than we did last time.


Before, we conversed significantly about how to demonstrate dominion over food choices, how not to be influenced by gluttony, laziness, sloth, and how to find peace of mind when walking through the grocery store deciding what to buy, and later in the kitchen with what to cook.


Jesus taught, “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink.”

Hmmmm. What does this mean? Does it mean totally ignore what you put into your mouth? Does it mean eat anything put in front of you? Does it mean it makes no difference what you eat?

What does it mean to take no thought for what you eat?


To understand his saying, you have to back up and understand that he had already taught the important of consuming spiritual food. “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” Jesus said.


Jesus was not advocating ignorance, apathy or neglect in one’s choices. He was re-directing attention from focus on material consumption to engaging with proper spiritual consumption. It wasn’t what went into the mouth that was of primary concern to him, but what was going on in consciousness. He knew that when one’s thinking was right with God, human action and effect would be right with God too.


“…every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” is reference to spiritual truth, or divine Science. Truth is what nourishes us and sustains us in all the right ways, not carrots and potatoes, ham and eggs.


People can eat the “right” material food, but if they lack spiritual inspiration, joy and feeling close to God, life is still going to feel out of balance, malnourished and weak. Eternal life and health don’t come from vitamins and proteins. They reside in Spirit and are discovered in spiritual understanding. And when they are understood, they translate into a healthy fit body that is quiet and obedient to the demands of Truth.


It’s spiritual food coming from God that properly nourishes the human mind and fills it with inspiration that translates into healthy living.


Paul wrote, “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”


So, when it comes to discussing the topic of food, the “food” we need to "put on our plate" is not what sits on the shelves of the grocery store, but the spiritual truths of God that inspire, uplift, buoy, fit and shape our views and lives to conform with the healthy fit man and woman of God's creating.


What “meat and drink” are you consuming today? Is it the healthy kind served up by God?

Down with overeating

If combating the temptation to overeat, starve gluttony out of your way of thinking by not feeding it with compliance, passivity or mindlessness.

Who are you helping today?

I have this cute paperweight that was given to me as a gift with a picture of one little girl pushing another up a steep slope. The quote on the side reads,
It's a useful reminder that we never suffer to help another out in need. Our generous giving and sharing benefits us too and takes us to a higher place.

"When you help someone up a hill, you get that much closer yourself."  ~ Anonymous

What are you seeing?

In light of the spiritual universe God created that is filled with goodness but that goodness is not always apparent to the human mind, it's not the world we have to change to find it, it's our perception of the world that needs improvement.

Need to protect yourself better?

This quote arrested my attention and got me to wondering about abusive states of mortal mind I need to be more diligent in defending myself from...

"If you are constantly being mistreated, you're cooperating with the treatment."

 ~ Robert Anthony

Your protection from swine flu

With the onslaught of publicity and commotion about swine flu fears, aggressive measures being taken in schools and workplaces to prevent contagion, and daily reports of people suffering, reminders to spiritually defend thought from being influenced by prevalent concerns cannot be too frequent.

Keep your spiritual armor on!

A strong protection from swine flu is a spiritual understanding of your infallible health as a beloved and secure child of God. Your individuality as a child of God is wholly immune to swine flu. A spiritual idea of God can't get it.

When aware of the swirling fears about catching the flu, I remember the story of the three Hebrew boys cast into the fiery furnace, recounted in the Old Testament. The flames were fierce and wild. But the boys were not touched. They walked through the fire and came out without a single hair singed.

While in the furnace, the King noticed a fourth figure with them, a presence commonly identified as the Christ. The boys obviously stayed in such a heightened spiritual state of mind, that their spiritual mindedness totally neutralized any effect from those flames. Their spiritual mindedness protected them.

The same rule works for us today. Spiritual mindedness neutralizes all the germs of fear, worry and concern swirling about us coming from other people, the media, doctors and the government. In a right state of mind, those germs do not affect us. They have no impact on our thought, our health, the body, our well being. They are as nothing. Just like Christ was with those boys in the heated flames, Christ is with us wherever we go. Christ protects us. Christ defends us. Christ knows what to do to keep us safe and well.

So, have no fear of the "flames" leaping up today in the form of flu fears. They are powerless. They are nothing to fear. They are as nothing to the spiritually inspired consciousness.

Keep your armor of protection on. Stay spiritually minded. Pray for your own safety and well being. Pray for your neighbor's safety and well being.

In a right state of mind, we can walk out of this "furnace" of error without a single hair singed on our head--without a trace that anything happened in the first place.

Layers of unflattering error

I caught a segment on TV a few days ago about a young man who lost 450 pounds. They showed a before and after shot of this guy, and the difference in appearance was astounding, as you can probably imagine.


What grabbed my attention, though, was how strikingly handsome this man was at a normal weight. At 650 pounds, his innate beauty was very difficult, if not impossible to see, from a physical point of view.


I pondered the metaphysical lesson.


Covered under layers of fat is one way mortal mind tries to hide the beautiful man or woman of God’s creating, but there are many other ways cover-ups happen.


People can take on layers of fear, anger, disappointment, discouragement, pride, conceit, and other sins. And if allowed to grow, adding layer upon layer in thought, they soon hide the beautiful, humble, strikingly handsome creation of God underneath. It's not a physical cover-up so much as a mental one.


This ought not to be!


We must vigorously rebel against any tendency of the carnal mind to hide our beautiful spiritual character under layers of error, mental or physical.


I pondered what layers of error I might be laboring under that needed to be shed. I’ll keep those thoughts to myself! But you may have some layers you’d like to shed too.


When faced with a deformed picture of identity, reform and improvement is possible. God created each of us in the divine image, and the outline is a beautiful sight to behold.

Don’t let mortal mind hide your incredibly beautiful character and spiritual form!

Healthcare reform and prayer treatment

There was an interesting article printed in the Los Angeles Times today that highlights a wrestling in our society over the merits, value and legitimacy of treatment for health problems through prayer.

Three prominent senators inserted a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill that would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses. I'll let you read the article yourself about the debate surrounding this provision.

In my own prayers, I pray that our country more largely recognizes the benefit of prayer. The present healthcare crisis is not primarily a financial one, but a moral and spiritual one. Our present system is crying out for a moral and spiritual overhaul that elevates the kind of healthcare people receive. And spiritual treatment is a viable and proven form of care.

Health is more than a medically manicured body. It involves living a spiritually responsible life, which spiritual treatment can help people find.

Millions of prayer-motivated people have proven the benefit of prayer to meet health needs over the centuries. We may all have plenty to learn about how to meet all health needs consistently and constantly solely through prayer, but the success to date and the benefits already garnered merit continued support of prayer-based treatment.

It certainly is monumentally less expensive than conventional medical care.

If everyone sincerely turned to God first before racing to the doctor or to the emergency room when a trouble developed, there would be far less visits to medical facilities and far fewer burdensome medical bills.

Prayer works. It heals. It brings huge benefits to society.

The future of Christian Science treatment is in no way tied to the outcome of a healthcare bill in Congress, but it would benefit our population to recognize the benefits of prayer and use it more frequently for healthcare needs. A provision in the healthcare bill recognizing the value of spiritual treatment could be a step in that direction.

Click here for article:

"Healthcare provision seeks to embrace prayer treatments"

Body image and losing weight

Here’s a new podcast I recorded for tmcyouth that was posted yesterday.


Taking a look in the mirror


That glass object in your room can sometimes be your worst enemy. It tells you if you’re fat or thin—good-looking or ugly. Click here to find out how to see your true image and shed off pounds of worry and doubt!

Learning patience by watching mothers

Sent in by a reader...

A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three-year-old girl in her basket. As they passed the cookie section, the child asked for cookies and her mother told her "No." The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss, and the mother said quietly, "Now Ellen, we just have half of the aisles left to go through; don't be upset. It won't be that long."

He passed the mother again in the candy aisle. Of course, the little girl began to shout for candy. When she was told she couldn't have any, she began to cry. The mother said, "There, there, Ellen, don't cry. Only two more aisles to go, and then we'll be checking out."

The man again happened to be behind the pair at the check-out, where the little girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible
tantrum upon discovering there would be no gum purchased today.

The mother patiently said, "Ellen, we'll be through this check-out stand in five minutes, and then you can go home and have a nice nap."

The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. "I couldn't help noticing how patient you were with little Ellen..."

The mother broke in, "My little girl's name is Tammy...

"I'm Ellen."