Exalted Thought

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #338

"I am affected only by my thoughts."

It is estimated that we have more than 50,000 thoughts every day. As I heard Wayne Dyer tell us in one of his outstanding talks, the problem with this is that the thousands of thoughts we have today are the same ones we had yesterday! Waking up from the circular thinking in which we are trapped requires an honesty we’re not accustomed to practicing. I know habitual thought is not an easy habit to break, but the desire to do so is the first step. Just like changing any behavior, you have to want to change or you never will. How can we begin to think differently? We can’t simply stop thinking, but we can exchange the trivial musings for substantial ideas. As Eleanor Roosevelt once said: “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” As I go through this day, I’ll often ask myself: What would Eleanor think? Namastè, each and every One! 

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried its fondest earthly hopes. With white fingers they point upward to a new and glorified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys.” Science & Health Page 299:1-11

United in Mind

"Thailand"
photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #336

"Forgiveness lets me know that minds are joined."

[Today’s lesson is so beautifully perfect that I am simply going to post it here!]

“Forgiveness is the means appointed for perception's ending. Knowledge is restored after perception first is changed, and then gives way entirely to what remains forever past its highest reach. For sights and sounds, at best, can serve but to recall the memory that lies beyond them all. Forgiveness sweeps away distortions, and opens the hidden altar to the truth. Its lilies shine into the mind, and call it to return and look within, to find what it has vainly sought without. For here, and only here, is peace of mind restored, for this the dwelling place of God Himself.

In quiet may forgiveness wipe away my dreams of separation and of sin. Then let me, Father, look within, and find Your promise of my sinlessness is kept; Your Word remains unchanged within my mind, Your Love is still abiding in my heart.” [ACIM workbook lesson #336]

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"The nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes for destruction. The more material the belief, the more obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its domain, dominates all matter, and man is found in the likeness of Spirit, his original being."

Science & Health Page 97:14-20

Choose Forgiveness - December 1, 2015

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #335

"I choose to see my brother's sinlessness."

Forgiveness is a choice. I remember years ago, during a metaphysical society meeting, someone saying, "Evil is a choice". She said this in relation to years of sexual abuse and psychological torture, perpetrated by the two people she should have trusted most as a child. She recognized that evil was a choice when she was presented with what seemed to be an overwhelming suggestion to do something similar to her infant child. In that moment, she realized she could choose, and she did. Now she chooses forgiveness in all aspects of her life. She has chosen to see her parents in the holy light of Love. She has chosen to live her life in peace, with a willingness to turn from past remembrances and see things in the reality of God's Love. She has chosen forgiveness for herself and everyone, knowing that we are One.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God’s own way, and let human justice pattern the divine.”

 Science & Health Page 542:17-21

The Gift of Forgiveness

Image Created by
Judith Ann Griffith

ACIM Workbook  Lesson #334

"Today I claim the gifts forgiveness gives."

An event which remains unforgiven within myself is brought to mind every time I see a turtle crossing the road. When I was quite young, I was sent to get the mail from the box which was located across the highway from our house. As I was going to the mailbox, I met a turtle coming toward me as he crossed the road. I thought I'd get the mail and then pick him up and take him across on my way back. Before I completed my task and turned back, a car came by and hit the turtle. The regret in not picking it up immediately, the guilt for "failing" to safely carry it across the road, these feelings recur every time I see a turtle. In recounting this event, I realize there is no need to examine our lives and be sorry and beg forgiveness. To accept the gift of forgiveness, we need only clear our minds of blame and accept Love with an open heart!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“…the spiritual recompense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of existence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love.”

Science & Health Page 97:1-3

A Return in Thought to Love

"Mexico"
photo by Richard Quick

ACIM Workbook  Lesson #333

“Forgiveness ends the dream of conflict here.”

My youngest son and I have fallen into the habit of fixing a nice meal and watching Master Chef Junior. Recently when we sat down to do this, the Hulu website seemed to be malfunctioning to the point of causing me to call customer service. In the past, I have dreaded phone calls to techies, which can be fraught with conflict, whether from my ignorance or their arrogance. I vowed to return to Love in my thought before picking up the phone and contacting them. I was quickly connected with someone, who passed me on to someone else, who sent me to his supervisor, who told me I needed to talk to the first person I spoke with. The good side of this was that it happened quickly, with much laughter and good will on all our parts, and the illusion of a problem being fixed within a few minutes. I am grateful for the tools which allow me to be absolutely certain that all is well, without expectation of what comes next!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the understanding of divine Love.”

Science & Health Page 288:3-7

Fear Binds, Forgiveness Frees

photo credit: Aaron Springston

ACIM Workbook Lesson #332

“Fear binds the world. Forgiveness sets it free.”

How many things are you bound to by fear?I know many of my actions have been dictated by fear. Perhaps fear of being alone binds you to relationships which have served their purpose and need to be changed. This could be thought of as a "failure" -- which brings up another fear, huh? What if we don't think of the ending of a marriage or friendship as a failure, but as a natural progression to be embraced? The same may be said of a career or hobby. These cessations may simply be steps on a journey to somewhere you never dreamed you would go. If you've planned your life in every detail, it may seem like giving up to move on to something else. That's why I love this way of thought I’m learning! There are no rules, other than listening for divine Mind to guide and lead me to wherever I need to be. This guidance doesn't always mean leaving something -- it could be staying with a job or relationship, regardless of what logic dictates. Listening and following is always an adventure!!

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

"Until the majesty of Truth should be demonstrated in divine Science, the spiritual idea was arraigned before the tribunal of so-called mortal mind, which was unloosed in order that the false claim of mind in matter might uncover its own crime of defying immortal Mind." 

Science & Health Page 564:19-23

Sleeping or Awakening?

photo credit: Christopher Fischer

ACIM Workbook Lesson #331

“There is no conflict, for my will is Yours.”

"Conflict is sleep, and peace awakening.” I love this line from today's ACIM lesson. And so we begin a series of ten teachings geared to help us understand what the ego (which is spoken of so often in these writings) actually is. If the thoughts we are having cause us conflict, they are of the ego -- or mortal mind, as Mary Baker Eddy refers to it. If there is harmony and peace, then our thoughts are God's ideas. Actually, there is nothing other than divine Idea; everything else is illusion, which is why erroneous thought is considered unreal. The only reality is God, which means either God is All or God is not. Hearing statements like this is when that little ego kicks in and makes a fuss. How can that be, it says? What about me?? Don't be afraid to tell it to be still. It is, after all, unreal. The silence that replaces the clamor holds the harmony of Being.

Mary Baker Eddy quote:

“Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong-doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term as applied to Mind or to one of God’s qualities.” Science & Health Page 497:24-26