Spiritual resource to share: readings from inspired writings
As I looked at the Glossary from Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, it struck me how many words applied directly to the Christmas story. So that became the basis of my readings for a Wednesday evening testimony meeting. Enjoy! And have a blessed Christmas!
Jer 17: 7
Job 11: 17, 18
SH 591: 23
Isaiah 9:6-7
Psalm 72:17
SH 581: 4
SH 588: 7
Luke 1: 26- 37
SH 494: 15 (only)
135: 6
591: 21
Luke 1: 38- 47, 56
SH 589: 19
582:14
589: 16-18
Matt 1: 18-24
Luke 2:4-7
SH 596: 11 (only), 15
510: 9
593: 4
Matt 2:1, 2, 5, 6, 9-11
SH vii: 4, 2
594: 12
584:26
298: 28-30
Luke 2: 8- 20, 22, 24
SH 583: 10
590: 9
582: 1
Luke 2: 25-33, 36-40
29: 20-1
298:13-15, 19-20, 22-24
319:5-7
446:20-23
45: 16
482: 19-22, 23
Hymn 236
Hymn 310
Hymn 222
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Monday, December 14, 2009
Lessons from trees and babies and patients
Spiritual resource to share: fun
No one ever told me how much laughter happens when you are in the daily practice of Christian Science. There is much joy to be harvested here -and sometimes that joy comes out in full throated guffaws. You operate on honesty and earnestness and you expect and demand results. It has to be practical. It ends up being joy-full.
In one particular conversation with a patient, we were talking about moving forward and how this is natural for us to do. As natural as the seedling rises to its full purpose of a tree, it is part of our nature as children of an all-loving intelligent God, to rise to our full purpose.
A favorite quote comes to thought: "The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." (F. Buechner) It is not what we love that moves us forward , it is THAT we love that we cannot help but move, grow, and continue to bless others as well as ourselves. God calls us to fulfill Her holy purpose. We respond.
But what about dealing with obstacles or seeming setbacks? What would try to divert, hinder or stop us from moving forward. Perhaps it is nothing but our own fabrications.
So, our conversation continued, how would a child learning to walk deal with a stumble? We know that something in them moves them forward; some compelling and holy curiosity gets them to stand up and try again. This is not heroic or out of the ordinary. This is what babies do! (Can you even imagine a baby taking a tumble and then refusing to get up? "Oh yes, you see," this hypothetical baby might try to explain, "I just must be the falling down baby type. Perhaps I am really meant to be on the floor." Preposterous.)
Segue to the Bible's book on II Timothy, where it states:
And answering this calling, and practicing this Truth, and sharing/discovering it with others leads to a joy that just makes you want to look up, hold your arms out and laugh.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
No one ever told me how much laughter happens when you are in the daily practice of Christian Science. There is much joy to be harvested here -and sometimes that joy comes out in full throated guffaws. You operate on honesty and earnestness and you expect and demand results. It has to be practical. It ends up being joy-full.
In one particular conversation with a patient, we were talking about moving forward and how this is natural for us to do. As natural as the seedling rises to its full purpose of a tree, it is part of our nature as children of an all-loving intelligent God, to rise to our full purpose.
A favorite quote comes to thought: "The place where God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." (F. Buechner) It is not what we love that moves us forward , it is THAT we love that we cannot help but move, grow, and continue to bless others as well as ourselves. God calls us to fulfill Her holy purpose. We respond.
But what about dealing with obstacles or seeming setbacks? What would try to divert, hinder or stop us from moving forward. Perhaps it is nothing but our own fabrications.
So, our conversation continued, how would a child learning to walk deal with a stumble? We know that something in them moves them forward; some compelling and holy curiosity gets them to stand up and try again. This is not heroic or out of the ordinary. This is what babies do! (Can you even imagine a baby taking a tumble and then refusing to get up? "Oh yes, you see," this hypothetical baby might try to explain, "I just must be the falling down baby type. Perhaps I am really meant to be on the floor." Preposterous.)
Segue to the Bible's book on II Timothy, where it states:
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.... Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus ....
And answering this calling, and practicing this Truth, and sharing/discovering it with others leads to a joy that just makes you want to look up, hold your arms out and laugh.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Friday, December 11, 2009
a gift for a child
Spiritual resource to share: our gifts
This just in .....
Successful gift giving all depends on what each girls' gifts are and where they are in their lives. That makes sense.
But little did I know that when we first got the first inspiration that a child was on the way, what gifts a child would bring to our lives. Little did I know the depth of love that is felt, the frustration, the surprise, that comes with the package of parenting.
Each child comes to us complete with an inherent mission, a cluster of spiritual qualities uniquely expressing their infinite Father-Mother God. We have the awesome job of seeing these qualities bloom perenially. Through sleepers and night time feedings, to ice skates and fairies, to car keys and college, each child's purpose blossoms and grows.
And I think, do we know just how important our gifts are to them? Our gifts of effort and earnestness, of love, experience and time provide their nourishing soil. We, as parents, are there to remind them that they are known, that they have a purpose and that they are loved.
So in this happy exchange of gift-giving, the deeper current of being known for who you are and who you will be moves forward and we celebrate it! That's the best gift for a child!
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
This just in .....
barbie horse with a pink saddle joyceThis was in response to our family's annual gift exchange. I am fortunate enough to have enough nieces that I (coming from a heavily male-oriented family) can get my girl fix in on a regular basis. I get to choose pink things, and musical things and romantic movies and girls' athletic wear, and share books, favorite charities, innovations and woodland adventures with the best of them.
Ok, (writes her mom) so Joyce typed the above in, BUT if you would like to be her 'pink' heroine she is the perfect age for dressup stuff. She has not had a good boa since the last one blew up. She just had a light up tiara fatality on the back yard swing set, and would be forever greatful to her favorite Aunt Kim for a box of girlie whatever. .... Anything else? Yes, she pretends most of the day, and fairies and princesses are on the top of the list. (Right after dog and horse)
Successful gift giving all depends on what each girls' gifts are and where they are in their lives. That makes sense.
But little did I know that when we first got the first inspiration that a child was on the way, what gifts a child would bring to our lives. Little did I know the depth of love that is felt, the frustration, the surprise, that comes with the package of parenting.
Each child comes to us complete with an inherent mission, a cluster of spiritual qualities uniquely expressing their infinite Father-Mother God. We have the awesome job of seeing these qualities bloom perenially. Through sleepers and night time feedings, to ice skates and fairies, to car keys and college, each child's purpose blossoms and grows.
And I think, do we know just how important our gifts are to them? Our gifts of effort and earnestness, of love, experience and time provide their nourishing soil. We, as parents, are there to remind them that they are known, that they have a purpose and that they are loved.
So in this happy exchange of gift-giving, the deeper current of being known for who you are and who you will be moves forward and we celebrate it! That's the best gift for a child!
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
Saturday, December 05, 2009
good is not helpless
Spiritual resource to share: true power in organizations
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
These statements have persistently intrigued me: that good is not helpless; truth always triumphs and love never fails. The power behind these absolute statements forms the basis for their expression.
So - I have puzzled - how do you engage with organizations that seem to fall flat of ethical and noble goals? Who have told outward lies, blatantly disregarded laws? Quitting those organizations is one option. Staying with and trying to bring about change is another. Both responses to these moral dilemmas are difficult.
Once a group hired a non-professional musician who was earnest and consistent and, as one friend said, "he plays most of the right notes most of the time." This grateful and compassionate approach helped me to see how I could engage with other groups where I didn't always agree with how they operated. I could see the good that they do and work with that.
But this went deeper. This wasn't a Pollyanna approach.
I understand that good works are born of honesty, commitment, dedication and selflessness and are powerful. In fact, these are the only qualities that accomplish anything worth accomplishing!
Deeply understanding the fixed nature of good trumps the mesmeric and discouraging aspects of greed, selfishness and even criminal thought that would bring on apathy and a sense of hopelessness.
Understanding the nature of good also heightens our awareness of good so that we don't mistake well intentioned efforts incorrectly.
I realized that it doesn't matter how many people are involved in an organization or how many differing opinions arise in the operation of an organization. Good will prevail.
Tangled bureaucracy, rumor mills, gossip and lawlessness do not have an absolute or spiritual basis. They can't stand.
Like a blade of grass pushing up in a desert - Truth, Life and Love - all elements of good - are insistent. Truth slices away at the tons of conflicting opinions like sand dunes drifting back and forth. Love plants its roots deeply. Life continues to create and perpetuate Life.
I continue to apply these ideas to my own life, the smaller groups I belong to and those larger groups that are fighting genocide, are encouraging earth stewardship and global efforts toward peace.
A human organization with noble goals is working its purpose out as surely as I am understanding and fine-tuning my life purpose.
Compassion, patience and an absolute hold on the power of Truth continue to guide me and remove any baggage as surely as it is guiding each of those organizations that I am committed to. I found I need to be as patient and persistent with these groups as I hope others are with me.
This can only bear good fruit. Love never fails; Truth always triumphs; and good is never helpless.
To share your thoughts on this or to explore this idea further, please feel free to be in contact with me, add your own comments below, email this article to a friend, or add to the healing finds and sites on the web to the right.
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