imagine............. (revisited)

Spiritual resource to share: our timeless Truth

Graduation! A few years ago, I remember as our oldest son crossed the stage to be handed his high school diploma. To see his class of 35, who represented about ten countries, and knowing that they have just been educated into a love of nature and a responsibility to take care of it, was inspiring to say the least.


One of the sweetest moments that started me off on a long train of thoughts was when our son's graduating class sang the song "Imagine" by John Lennon as their class song.


As they sang, I realized that there is no generation gap between my son's generation and my generation's love of music and hope for peace. This led me to consider my parent's generation. We definitely had different tastes in music, but also had the same hope for peace. And then this led to the realization that the desire for peace, as for Truth, is timeless.


There is a point that I get to in my healing work where I realize the timelessness of the Truth that I follow and practice: it isn't about generations, or persons or time, or anything linear at all. Truth, peace, hope are timeless and universal. "Imagine" speaks of a universal hope and a prayer that we all live as one.


Jesus sang this same song :
That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us:


And hundreds of years before that, King David sang:
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!


In fact, one could say that all major world religions sing the praises of unity and peace!

So.... what is my song that I can contribute? I wanted to sing along with my son's class.  My best contribution for the world I imagine for my children is through my practice of Christian Science. To me, it is the most practical, inspirational, and universal of any discipline I have ever come across. It applies to the care of nations and to the care of an infant. You prove love. You prove what you believe by how you live.

In Christian Science, progress is demonstration, not doctrine. This Science is ameliorative and regenerative, delivering mankind from all error through the light and love of Truth.


It gives to the race loftier desires and new possibilities. It lays the axe at the root of the tree of knowledge, to cut down all that bringeth not forth good fruit; "and blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me."


It touches mind to more spiritual issues, systematizes action, gives a keener sense of Truth and a stronger desire for it.


....This movement of thought must push on the ages: it must start the wheels of reason aright, educate the affections to higher resources, and leave Christianity unbiased by the superstitions of a senior period.


-from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 235

What is your song?

© AndreasG - Fotolia.com

an insistent peace

Spiritual resource to share:  paz = peace

photo by Domingos Peixoto for Brazilian newspaper O Globo/Rio

Recently, my friend Amy posted on facebook the story of the drug wars going on in Rio and this picture. It brought me back to my short stay in Rio, where I was working with a team of others to distribute Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures more broadly in that area. One special late afternoon, a colleague and I walked Rio’s beaches, with the twinkliing lights of the favelas on one end and the luxury hotels on the other.  We were wrapped up talking about healing and peace in the Middle East. Now I find all those ideas for peace and healing equally relevant for Rio now.

Newspapers were all over this story. It was humbling and frightening to read of it. I felt small.  What can I possibly say to such a massive display of aggression, violence, danger and conflict?  How can I pray?

Then, quite simply, I was reminded and humbled that God is greater than all these things. 

People have responded to this chaotic mayhem with a simple word: Peace. The photo above reminded me of the childlike purity and permance of peace.

Peace is what will prevail. It always has and always will.
Life is insistent and will prevail.
Love is the cornerstone of all spiritual building and will prevail.
And in the midst of the deepest disorder, order will stand its ground and spread.

I am so grateful to Amy for bringing this to my attention, for those journalists letting the world know, for those whose vision for justice and peace emboldened and trumped parasitic greed and fear.  And I am grateful for all of us prayer warriors, who get to work affirming what is permanent, good and true in the glaring face of chaos. Effective prayer has as its foundation the law of God --the law of the Creator as defined in Science and Health:

CREATOR. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal; the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Principle; God, who made all that was made and could not create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.

Although there is great relief that this recent – and some say the worst  - battle has been won ( click here for today's news) the mission to break the grip of the drug gangs continues. So does our prayer.

to reassure depressed hope

Spiritual resource to share: hope

Spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere and with it, nature is sweeping away the cold and muddy, and is persistently bursting forth with new growth.

Sweeping away what is muddy to reveal new growth reminded me of healing depression. I came across this quote from Mary Baker Eddy's primary work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures:

Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims, for if they will only accept Truth, they can resist disease and ward it off, as positively as they can the temptation to sin. ....... The fact that Truth overcomes both disease and sin reassures depressed hope. It imparts a healthy stimulus to the body, and regulates the system.

I found it helpful to break down this whole paragraph - to get a deeper look at its healing influence. Walk with me on this one:

Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims,

This has to do with rightly identifying ourselves - we are not thrown to the winds of chance, bad luck or bad circumstances - but have the ability to think, to choose, and to love. The qualities of intelligence, discernment and authority are spiritual, not subject to limitation.

...for if they will only accept Truth...

Openness or receptivity to Truth keeps the channels of thought open to receive new ideas. Accepting Truth, we give our consent to Truth and open our thought to the power of Truth and Love in our lives.

...they can resist disease and ward it off, as positively as they can the temptation to sin.

Truth is not a naive brush over illness, maliciousness or lack. Truth is active and transforming. Just as light dissolves darkness, Truth annihilates anything untrue. Love annihilates anything unloving. Life destroys death or anything that limits or restricts good. Physical disease can be resisted in the same way that the temptation to sin can be resisted.

The fact that Truth overcomes both disease and sin reassures depressed hope.

The active expression of Truth (of purity, honesty, principle, Love) is the antidote to depression. Understanding the omnipotent nature of Truth lifts off the burden of self-doubt and of thinking that evil has power. Hope is released.

It imparts a healthy stimulus to the body, and regulates the system.

Seeing that Truth is always operating on our behalf, frees up our thought which leads to expressions of freedom, flow and growth. Circulation of new fresh ideas becomes the norm. Balance is achieved. Systems in the physical body and systems of organization are regulated in accordance with efficiency, harmony and progress.

Check out these links to read about how people have overcome depression in their lives:

Drug-free answers to treating depression
What got me going again
Freed from depression
I shone a spiritual light on Seasonal Affective Disorder
A healing of manic depression

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.

Possibility and Responsibility

Spiritual resource to share: readiness to work

It's been the start of an incredibly upbeat week here in the US as we welcome in our 44th President. Pre-inaugural speeches have played up on the theme of everything is possible. Tomorrow's inauguration of our new president has the theme: ‘A New Birth of Freedom’ commemorating the 200th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth and our founding fathers' ideal of equality and freedom for all. Tempered into those talks is the theme of possibility but also responsibility.

I certainly feel the joy of discovering new possibilities and expansive ways of thinking and solving problems. But there is another kind of joy that welcomes our increased responsibility to one another and to ourselves. This is the kind of joy that deepens character and grows confidence.

Taking responsibility for ourselves is how we love ourselves and forms the basis of how we love others. Taking responsibility for one another gives us a place to belong and shows how much we are needed.

Looking ahead of this celebratory week, the challenges we have today will still be there. But collectively we have a new resolve. The Christian Science Monitor's opinion column reports a resolve that goes as deep as spiritual transformation worldwide. "There is a growing confidence that universal peace and well-being are, against all odds, actually achievable on planet Earth.”

Heady stuff.

What I love about Christian Science is that it shows how these ideals can be made practical. How? The founder and discoverer of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, has some salient points:

• By understanding that God’s work is already done and is good: "Science reveals the possibility of achieving all good, and sets mortals at work to discover what God has already done."


• And that we have the resources to reveal this good through God: "Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul."


• And that we have a perfect example in Christ Jesus’ work as to how this can be done: "His (Christ Jesus’) mission was both individual and collective. He did life's work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals, — to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility."

Responsibility, practicality, community, possibility and the joy to do the work will probably be recurring themes throughout the year. And we are ready!

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.

"It's about hope"

Spiritual resource to share: hope = positive reassurance

I had one of the landmark experiences in my life when I was working internationally for a publisher. I was involved in a nation-wide effort to restore hope to a country whose economy bottomed out around the year 2000. I won't go into too many details here, but I helped to set up a nation-wide tour of public lectures and member workshops throughout this country. The whole process of identifying where and when to go, what messages to use, who would we be talking to, etc. involved deep prayer and listening.

The results were profound and inspiring. It certainly wasn't a one time fix, as all realized the need for consistent prayer to persistently break through the fear and uncertainty that threatened. But it was a way to firmly put our stake in the ground that said fear and uncertainity cannot reign over any of God's children. It was a way to share with the public ideas that strengthened the nobility of our neighbors and opened up possibilities for solutions. Soon after the second string of lectures, we got reports of hope restored, a higher sense of expectation for good results, and thrilling accounts of people finding their way to security for themselves , their families and their communities. I am still in awe of how powerful these ideas were and are.

We worked with many ideas, such as:

Under a paragraph heading of "Positive reassurance" Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "The fact that Truth overcomes both disease and sin reassures depressed hope." Depression comes from a false belief that there is something more powerful than good. The opposite of depression is the expression of that good! Truth - that God is infinite and that good is infinite - reassures us with what our spiritual roots have always claimed.

She goes on to explain: "It (Truth) imparts a healthy stimulus to the body, and regulates the system." Infinite channels for good, for unity, for peace thrive and when we give our consent to this possibility, thought is drawn to its healthier expressions. Truth regulates our body, our community, our world. Truth systematizes action, governs with balance and grace.

Simply put, good is possible, NOW.

Our family had a precious relationship with an older woman who lived with us for well over a year. Her great-grandfather was a slave. I can only imagine her great wonder at this election and pride at the rapid strides that have been made in this country due to high expectations and giving our consent to progress.

But regardless of the outcome of this election (it is midmorning on Election Day), there has been a deep-seated hope stirred up. Why? because more people are giving their consent to the fact that all good is possible now and that we are capable of far more good than has ever been required of us. We have a choice to take that higher road that recognizes the highest good: that God (as Mind, intelligence) governs every system and governs every action. "The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind." We can expect progressive change that blesses us all.





For another inspiring account of hope from a "swing-voter", click here.



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.

prayer signposts among the financial crises

Spiritual resource to share: targeted prayer

we're all in this together

This just in -

News Alert 1:34 p.m. ET Friday, October 3, 2008 U.S. House Passes Financial Rescue Legislation

By a vote of 263 to 171, the House of Representatives has approved a $700 billion bailout plan in the hopes of propping up the nation's economy, which has been besieged by the fallout from the subprime mortgage crisis.

Cruising the news on the financial situation, some words and phrases keep popping up -- standing out almost highlighted, saying - this is where you need to pray! Here are some of those highlighted words (and thanks to the friends who continue to circulate articles, posts and videos on these issues that give me these words!!):

Confidence
Connection
Exchange
Let love, not fear, rule

Thomas Friedman from NYTimes distilled the financial crisis problem down to two key areas that I have decided to take up in prayer: confidence and the need to realize that we are all connected. It is the distrust and fear that is stagnating and blocking the flow of the exchange of value. And, he pointed out, we cannot get away from the fact that we are all connected. So when we set up policies that hurt others, we are hurt; when we set policies to bless and help others, we are helped.

From the UK's Evening Standard came another helpful direction for prayer: Hank Paulson practices this precept from his religion – “… a religion in which you emphasize love rather than fear," he says.

Contrast that with a recent interview overheard on public radio with a psychiatrist. He suggested that people find great reward in revenge, and so, as a way to cure this crisis, economic policy should in some way cater to this need for revenge and find a way to craft in punishments that others can give. This was not a restorative justice approach to the problem, but more of “an eye for an eye” approach. I winced. Nothing like solving a problem at the same level at which it developed. I think we are capable of a far more noble approach. And that noble approach is love.

So what are we dealing with here? This all adds up to a demand to practice the Golden Rule; to let Love govern instead of fear; open thought to possibilities.

“It is well to be calm in sickness; to be hopeful is still better; “ writes Mary Baker Eddy in her classic book: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. “Knowledge that we can accomplish the good we hope for, stimulates the system to act in the direction which Mind points out.”

We can take the steps to remove the distrust and fear, envy, malice and greed from the problem and from the solution. We can step up to the demand to have confidence in Truth (all that is fair, just, reasonable, balanced) instead of chaos. We can emphasize love instead of fear, and make the Golden Rule* our basis for interactions.

We are all in this together. And today's step will continue to draw out of us all the intelligence, justice, honesty, compassion and nobility that God has given us.

(Recommended: Check out Karen Armstrong's talk on ted.com and her efforts to build a Charter for Compassion -- to help restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine. )


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.

Rise up!

Spiritual resource to share: a higher hope

Hope. Change. Freedom. It is not surprising in an election year how powerful these words are……and how often they are used.

But these words can be used to generate fear and division and ridicule as much as they bring out the most cherished human ideals. So how to sort through the emotions on the human scene in this campaign season in the US - full of news headlines of division and lack and fear?

We rise up - letting our thought rise to the level of what is spiritual. Then we see that there is a spiritual basis for hope, for change and for freedom.

MBEddy writes under the heading of “Higher hope:”

The human mind will sometime rise above all material and physical sense, exchanging it for spiritual perception, and exchanging human concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man will recognize his God-given dominion and being.

Check out this article that explains more about a spiritual basis for hope in "The power of resurrection brings hope" from spirituality.com.






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.

Comfort and Joy

Spiritual resource to share: joy and comfort!

Last week, I came across this idea from Science and Health that gave me a new way of seeing and celebrating Christmas:

The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be understood; but when explained on the basis of physical sense and represented as subject to growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, and must continue to be, an enigma.

It doesn't sound too Christmassy. But when our Sunday School kids and I were talking about the impact and importance of Christmas, this quote made lots of sense.

What is the importance of Christmas? To me it is that the Christ - the expression of God - is something that becomes tangible in our lives. We can feel the joy, comfort and dominion of God. That the whole world view of evil, disease, decay -- of things not making sense, of love not being returned, etc. - the whole enigma of how weary the world is - is all of a sudden broken! Broken! By this beam of living Love - the Christ.

It struck me of the incredible hope and yearning toward peace - something earnestly prayed for - that hope was fulfilled by the coming of the Christ.

And to know that Christ is not only accepted, but understood. And now that we can understand the teachings of Christ, we can practice those very same precepts. We can learn to heal.

The Christ ushered in a whole new world view, one that hearts have longed for, one that heals and redeems, one that we recognize immediately. It is intrinsically natural and innately familiar.

What profound joy was felt at the birth of Jesus -this whole scene bursting with meaning and possibilities, fulfillment and progress. People anticipated this coming, expected it to come and gave their consent that now all good is possible.

Even more profound that this joy is sustained thousands of years later.

As next year comes into focus, there will be more peace talks, and progress for human rights; there will be campaigns against hunger and poverty and campaigns for beauty and earth stewardship. All of this is fueled by the same hope for a more spiritual world view where infinite ideas are brought forth to heal and redeem. And we can continue to understand God as the divine Principle of all things and in so doing we fulfill our most profound hopes and experience true joy - the understanding of the ultimate triumph of life.

Merry Christmas, friends!





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.

What we are born to do

Spiritual resource to share: hope



No doubt this was one of the most watched web videos this year.
Watch this and share why this inspires you so. Of course, I am assuming it will, simply because I have watched it numerous times and I still get a rush of inspiration every time I see it.

It reminds me that

• beauty is everywhere.
• achieving those things most secretly cherished is possible.
• diligence and perseverance = success.
• we can expect surprises.
• we are all born with purpose to do great things.

The popularity of this video is so enouraging. It connects us with universal ideas that we ALL agree on. I just took a mere five minutes to find ideas from MBEddy's Science and Health to fine tune some of the inspiration I've felt from this clip. Five minutes! Think of how many more ideas I could share here if I did ten, fifteen, twenty!

Knowledge that we can accomplish the good we hope for, stimulates the system to act in the direction which Mind points out.

Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them. .... We are all capable of more than we do.

....self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every department of life.

Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses.

Now, add your comments and then go out and shine! Also see my buddy blogger's post on this same clip.

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.

does thought evolve or revolve and why should we care?

Spiritual resource to share: hope and progress



Once while I was in grad school, two of my favorite professors were in my tiny office and got embroiled in a debate about whether or not mankind is revolving or evolving. One was a retired Senator who was practical and tactical. The other professor taught global issues/future studies and was insightful and delightful.

One argued that mankind is destined to repeat history and one can project trends into the future based on the past. (This was the ex-Senator.) The other argued that mankind constantly grows into higher levels of consiousness and pointed out the impossibility of ever going back to the past to determine the future. After all, can we go back now and say that the world IS flat? (I mean this literally, not figuratively, Mr. Friedman.)

The debate ended when it was time to eat, and it was resolved that mankind is evolving in an upward spirally type way, making some of the same mistakes amidst an ever evolving and improving background. Think of a metal spring wire on end.

So why should we care?

We care because care makes us hope. Hope gives us the juice to rise above our present situations and to grow. Growing means living. MBEddy writes

The fact that Truth overcomes both disease and sin reassures depressed hope. It imparts a healthy stimulus to the body, and regulates the system.

I think that this applies to all systems - not only bodily systems, but organizational systems, education systems, and other methodologies. To understand - not just believe - that Truth is our basis for reality, principle, wholeness and order is a happy thought. And restored hope in the possibility of progress is powerful!

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.

The scent of water

Spiritual resource to share: small steps

This was my ultimate challenge many years ago:
No job.
No car.
No place to live.
No money.
Plans to have a family dashed.
But the worst of it was I felt I had lost my connection to God.
So, added to my list was little hope.
I say little hope instead of no hope, because it was a little thing that helped me. That was the idea that in spite of everything, God loved me.

It has been several times now that I have told this story about my divorce and how I re-built my life. But today I am reminded that getting out of horrible, dead end situations sometimes takes just one step. And it can be a little step, and that’s okay.

I read this today from the book of Job (which was the catalyst for this posting)

There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.

Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground;

Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant.

Life prevails over even the worst that can happen. Even a slight glimpse of this idea will start us in the right direction – a “scent” of this refreshing thought will get us up and flourishing once again.

I am praying for these small glimpses of peace, hope, progress for all those who are impacted by the tragedy at Virginia Tech, by the confusion of war, or one’s own sense of isolation. These small glimpses are like light in a dark place.

This is so practical, so do-able. A little step, a short prayer acknowledges this light. It puts a wedge into discouragement and lets the light glide right in.

This leaves me with a feeling of authority and growing dominion. We have what we need to overcome discouragement and disappointment. God loves us. And with this nugget of Truth, we can grow to understand that this love is a rock on which we can firmly stand.

Would love to hear what small steps you have taken that have yielded more insight and strength!

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.

Hello, He is risen!

Spiritual resource to share: Easter greetings

There was a woman I knew who, when I called her on the phone, would answer, "Hello! He is risen!" I knew this was her unique way of expressing her beliefs as a born-again Christian and sharing that with people right away. Later, I learned it was the greeting early Christians shared with one another. Some churches will use it in church services, greeting one another with "Christ is risen!" and responding with "He is risen!"

Today this greeting may mean a lot of things. It can serve as a reminder that we can rise above our difficulties or that we can take a stand for those things that are good and right in the world. "He is risen" can let us know that we are not alone in our struggles to find meaning, health and well-being. Because the Christ has already found a way, we can find our way, too.

The early Christians were model workers of a passionate radical movement that dared to challenge the mainstream beliefs saying love was weak and death was the final say. They knew that God's love is supreme and that death "was swallowed up" in the victory of everlasting life. Their humble greetings to one another kept that reminder front and center. It must have encouraged and emboldened them.

And you know, when put in that way, I feel that all of us are like those early workers, joined together via the internet. We are commenting and questioning each other, responding and encouraging one other. And we have our own "He is risen" greeting to one other in cyberspace.

Happy Easter, everyone! "He is risen!"






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.

the light at the end of a tunnel

Spiritual resource to share: hope

When I worked for the wider distribution of Science and Health worldwide, I used to collect quotes from people who were just hearing about Christian Science and reading Science and Health for the first time. I would often go back to those quotes which would remind me of the freshness and inspiration that this book gives me. In fact, I have a framed copy of four of my favorite quotes:

• From an AIDS worker: "This book is the light at the end of a very dark tunnel."
• From an author: "Every time I open Science and Health, it reaches into my heart."
• From a man from a war-torn country: "This book could help nations in turmoil."
• From an enthusiastic new reader of Science and Health: "I am healed and I'm happy. Really happy."
  

When I realize that there is an answer to every situation anyone could possibly endure, I feel a lifting of depression and a rush of fresh hope. There is a way to find the peace, contentment, productivity and love our hearts naturally yearn for. There are lessons along the way where we learn to drop the baggage of pride, ego and self-centered thinking. And these lessons broaden our lives and increase our receptivity to accept more of what is possible. Mary Baker Eddy writes:

Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee.

So, we can welcome in this new week, feel that hope and expect to learn deeper and broader aspects of God and who we are as God's children. And we can feel happy, really happy!










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.

receiving christmas

Spiritual resource to share: receptivity/returning to our roots























So much of my understanding about Christmas has been to focus on the giving part – you know – "T'is better to give than to receive", but after reading "Making Room" by Chris Irby, I realized that there is much to be said about receiving.

Receiving is that open state of expectancy. To "receive" comes from the Latin recipere which means "regain, take back," (from re- "back" + -cipere - "to take.")

"O come, O come, Emmanuel" sings a Christmas song – Come, it welcomes us to accept that God is with us, always with us.

So when we sing “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, Let earth receive her king….” We are singing that the earth take back her king and regain her primary relationship with God.

And when we sing "O little town of Bethlehem "

How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift is given;
....
Where meekness will receive him, still
The dear Christ enters in.

...we are singing to humbly reclaim the wondrous gift that was given to us.

Continuing on the "take back/regain" theme, God's wonderful gifts are given to us: love, protection, supply, and so on.

How do we receive these gifts? Meekness, gratitude, confident expectancy of good, self-forgetfulness, purity, affection, trustworthiness - and all those things that make us childlike - these qualities of thought help us receive or "regain" these gifts and recognize that these gifts have always been ours.

Now, in humbleness of mind, are we ready to receive them.

Dropping the baggage of false identity, fear, doubt, self-hatred, lack - we regain what has always been ours - the kingdom of God - which to me means understanding God loves us. God is good. We have a divine purpose. And we are given all that we need.

Happy Christmas everyone! And I mean everyone. May we all receive Christmas - the very fulfillment of hope - all year round.

It is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire
when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
and ye shall have them.

Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of,
before ye ask Him.

— Christ Jesus

A note about the picture: Carl Bloch's work has intrigued me in that his detail of expression is remarkable. Born in 1834, he was recognized as perhaps the greatest artist ever to interpret the life and death of Christ - and one of Denmark's, and Europe's, greatest portrait artists.





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.