A Course in Miracles Workbook Lesson #133 states: "I will not value what is valueless." How do we know if something is valuable? One of the "tests" for recognizing if something is valuable is to ask yourself: Is what I’m valuing changeable? What does not change? Certainly everything physical does, often quite rapidly. Love, with a capital "L" doesn't change, although many of the fleeting things we call love tend to lessen, even turning into other not-so-nice emotions. Some people think that jealousy is part of love. Some believe that overprotective, controlling behavior symbolizes their love. Strangely, people even kill in the name of love. And so the second part of our litmus test comes into play: This thing that we value, do we feel guilt in association with it? So now we have two tests to check for the reality of what we value: does it last and do we feel guilty in any way. I'm looking around the room right now and asking myself what do I value. Many things bring a smile to my heart; I enjoy looking at them and remembering happy feelings I associate with them -- but value? No, I don't value anything in here as much as I value the love friends and family. And I have no fear of change or loss, as how can I value something which is not real?
“Everything good or worthy, God made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not make,--hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis we read that He saw everything which He had made, ‘and, behold, it was very good.’ The corporeal senses declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.”
Mary Baker Eddy - Science & Health Page 525:20-27
“You do not ask too much of life, but far too little. When you let your mind be drawn to bodily concerns, to things you buy, to eminence as valued by the world, you ask for sorrow, not for happiness. This course does not attempt to take from you the little that you have. It does not try to substitute utopian ideas for satisfactions which the world contains. There are no satisfactions in the world.”
A Course in Miracles W-133.2:1-5
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