Spiritual Solutions

LOVE

9th Day, Friday. Read I John 4:7-21.

Love, in Divine Mind, is the idea of universal unity. In expression, it is the power that joins and binds together the universe and everything in it. Love is a harmonizing, constructive power. When it is made active in consciousness, it conserves substance and reconstructs, rebuilds, and restores man and his world.

As I make a perfect union between my mind and the loving mind of the Father, I realize a goodness everlasting and joy beyond expression. The point of contact is a willingness and a seeking on my part. “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

Love is that mighty power, that divine quality of God that is expressing through all mankind, and cannot be suppressed by any outside force. I now firmly declare that it is expressing through me, and that no environment or external condition can hinder it. Any unloving condition of the world is no bar to my exercise of love; in fact, it is an incentive.

I am not afraid to pour out my love on all the so-called evil of the world. I deny the appearance of evil, and affirm the omnipotence of love and goodness.

The word love overcomes hate, resistance, opposition, obstinacy, anger, jealousy, and all other error states where there is mental or physical friction. As divine love enters into the thought process, every cell of my body is poised and balanced in space, in right mathematical order as to weight and relative distance.

In quietness and confidence, I affirm: “God, in His love, fills me with new life. In His name I am cleansed, strengthened, and healed.”

Questions:

1. Define “love.”

2. What happens when love is made active in consciousness?

3. What is necessary to make a perfect union between our mind and the loving mind of the Father?

4. Is there any bar to our exercise of love?

I express love to all, love that is balanced with wisdom. My prayer is: “Lord, make me a channel for the expression of Your love, day by day.”

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

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 Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions.

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This morning, when I went outside to pick up the newspaper at 5:30, the night sky was clear and filled with stars. I was reminded of when I served in the British Royal Navy many years ago and I was on night watch while we sailed the Indian Ocean; the night sky was filled with stars that looked like huge jewels in the far reaches of space.

It must have been on such a night when the psalmist looked up in the sky and spoke the words recorded in Psalms 8: “When I look at thy heavens the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast established; what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. Thou hast given him dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.” (Ps. 8:3-6)

As I read those words again, my heart is filled with inspiration, gratitude and wonder at the Divine Order in which we live, move and have our being. In this month of November, the month of giving thanks, there is perhaps no better time to recognize and give thanks for the divine order that permeates every area of our lives.

Even when we are not aware of it, order is here, because God is here. Divine order is the very essence of God which brings to us the experiences that help us learn and grow. Its presence in our lives assures us that all is well, that everything will work out for the best.

Divine order is not something we earn or achieve. We do not have to search for order, because it was there all along. To know this is true, we need only perceive it with the faith of spiritual vision and spiritual understanding.

The former Unity minister and author Eric Butterworth once told of being involved in an experience of square dancing. He said that he was never very good at it, but he remembered the caller giving instructions. Eric was having a difficult time, running into people and generally disrupting the entire group. The caller finally came over and said quietly to him, “You gotta keep in step or you’ll bump into the person next to you. In dancing you either cooperate or collide.” Cooperate or collide . . . Eric said he always remembered that.

Certainly we must keep in step with divine order, the divine plan within ourselves, or we shall find ourselves bumping into people and things all about us. When we fail to operate in accord with the laws of God, we are sure to collide with people or situations or things sooner or later.

And what is cooperation? It is love. It is the attitude of mind wherein we do not work alone. We do not operate, we cooperate. We work with God. We work with people. The same law that guides the planets in their courses is in control right here on earth for those who accept the law. In the scriptures we are told, “Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall offend them.” Cooperate or collide is a good law of life.

Our success, our well-being and indirectly our prosperity are very much dependent upon how well we get along with other people. We are told in Romans 13:10 that “love is the fulfilling of the law.” Love is the expression of the natural law of divine order in the universe as the strongest single force in existence. No other human force is so thoroughly impregnated by the power of God.

“See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” (I John 3:1) There is no element of trying to change or make or shape things into a new pattern. Open your eyes and see; recognize something that actually exists. For example, a man in a dark room feeling his way about suddenly touches the light switch. He doesn’t alter anything in the room, he doesn’t make anything, and he doesn’t add anything or take anything away. Yet, suddenly, everything is changed. The things that acted as stumbling blocks in the darkness are found to be the most useful and beautiful. Everything is in harmony which seemed before to be naught but evil to his darkened vision.

The electric switch that transforms and transmutes the miracle before our eyes in the relationships of life is our right use of divine love. It changes our whole perspective. Think of yourself not as a worker, but as a co-worker with God, with the divine law, and a partner with those who work with you. The spirit of love will lead you into the ways of cooperation, and into giving from the abundance and benevolence of divine order. For, as Amy Carmichael said, “You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving.”

Begin right where you are to turn on the light of love. Love will make you non-resistant, cooperative, and helpful. Love will lead you to a greater spirit of service and a keener sense of fair-play. Love will enable you to have greater drive and more enthusiasm. Love will make you creative and successful.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev.  Alan A.  Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over forty years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

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We’re getting some new windows on one side of our house next week, and it got me to thinking about how our soul could sometimes do with new windows. It is said that your eyes are the windows of your soul; that means they’re not only for others to look into to catch a glimpse of your soul, but they are the windows through which your soul looks outward. So, ask yourself what you see when you look at your life, your world and others in it.

I am reminded of the scriptural passage in Isaiah 54:2, God speaking, “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; hold not back, lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes.” It seems to me that we often need new windows to look through, to “let the curtains of our habitations (where we habitually dwell) be stretched out,” to see a larger vision for ourselves and for others. We need to grow in conscious awareness of God’s ever-present reality, in which we “live and move and have our being.”

As God said to Abraham (Gen. 13:14-15, 17) “Lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see I will give to you . . . Arise, walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” We are talking of awareness, of being aware of the benevolence of God active in your life right now and the gifts that are continuously given. This is the nature of God; it is the lovingness of God presence omnipresent, giving of itself in, through and as you. As it says in the scriptures, “We love because God first loved us.”

I well remember the words of James Dillet Freeman that made a distinct impression upon me when he spoke at the Unity church I attended in 1969, which at that time was located in Arlington Heights, Illinois. He said, “Look with the eyes of love.” I have found that when we really do that we align ourselves with our true nature, and we see rightly.

In answering the question, “Which is the great commandment in the law?” a question which was meant to test him, Jesus, referring back to the biblical books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy, responded “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.”

When Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” he is giving us an imperative, to enable us to dwell in the warmth of our own Divine support. For to live is to be in relationship. If we look with the eyes of love at the other person, we will see that his life is as it is because of the way he is seeing life. We will be looking through a new window and making an attempt to stand with him or her and to see as he or she sees. One of the best ways to try to understand someone is to see the good in him or her. In many places in the scriptures it implies that this is the way of the saints, those who love God in themselves and in others.

All true saints have one characteristic: their ability to relate to all people, to walk and talk with all persons, to identify alike with the leper and the criminal, the disfigured and the stupid, the thief and the alien, the coward and the heretic, with the beast of the field, the bird of the air, and the fish of the sea. Somehow these saints comprehend the shared existence of creation.

A saint is one who is fulfilling the process; a saint is what one is intended to be. Jesus demonstrated the potential in all persons; he showed what a person will be if he or she releases his or her imprisoned splendor. This is what all religions are about, despite doctrinal differences: the proper way to be a spiritually mature person. It is the first and foremost lesson of life. The more creatures unlike yourself you can identify with, the more fully do you reveal what you can be.

Our problem is that we do not know or love ourselves fully enough to be able to truly know and love others. We can identify with the similar, and not with the dissimilar. This is why we tend to organize in groups or categories of people with common traits or needs or backgrounds.

By nature we are generous and loving, but we often frustrate and restrict our impulses in very subtle ways. We must challenge ourselves to change the tendency of simply looking at people, and try to look with them through the same window, which means that we must first accept the fact of their existence and thus the significance of their lives and our shared experience. In this way we are able to empathize and walk in their shoes for a while, as we together look through what may be for us a whole new window.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at www.alanrowbotham.com
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Today, Friday, March 18, is the ninth day in the Lenten season. Lent is the period of time during which we can prepare ourselves for the Easter experience.
 

Assignment 9
 
We speak a great deal of love, we think a great deal about love, but do we know love? Love is God in action! Love is selfless. Love thinks only of the beloved. Love is blind to all faults, all shortcomings, for love sees God, which is good.
 
Love is the great unifying, harmonizing, drawing power in the universe. Love draws loved ones, friends, experiences, money and happiness and holds the soul and body together. Love in the secret of all healing! If you want more of anything in life . . . Love More!
 
Let’s take a test to see how much we really love. This test is in I Corinthians 12 (Moffat). You may grade yourself. How many are true of you?
 
“Love is very patient, very kind. Love knows no jealousy. Love makes no parade, gives itself no airs. Is never rude, never selfish, never irritated, never resentful. Love is never glad when others go wrong. Love is gladdened by goodness, always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best. Love is always hopeful. Love never disappears!”
 
How did you come out? Remember the words of Paul, “I may speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but if I have no love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal; I may prophesy, fathom all mysteries and secret ore, I may have such absolute faith that I can move hills from their places, but if I have no love, I count for nothing. I may distribute all I possess to the poor, I may give up my body to be burned, but if I have no love, I make nothing of it. I will show you a more excellent way. Make love your aim, then set your heart on spiritual gifts.”
 
Jesus said, “Love one another.” He did not say that you need “like” them; but it is imperative you’re your sake that you love them. To love is to sustain them as they are where they are! Do all in your power to give them freedom to be. This is Love!
 
(This series of Lenten messages was first developed by Unity minister Dr. Sue Sikking, founder of Unity-by-the-Sea, Santa Monica, California, author of God Always Says Yes and Seed of the New Age.)
 
 
God is Blessing You, Right Now!
 
Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-nine years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, Spiritual Solutions, at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

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“Love sails me around the house. I walk two steps on the ground and four steps in the air. It is love. It is consolation. I don’t care if it is consolation. I am not attached to consolation. I love God. Love carries me all around. I don’t want to do anything but love.

“And when the bell rings, it is like pulling teeth to make myself shift because of that love, secret love, hidden love, obscure love, down inside me and outside me, where I don’t care to talk about it. Anyway, I don’t have the time or the energy to discuss such matters. I have only time for eternity, which is to say, for love, love, love.

“Maybe Saint Teresa would have me snap out of it, but it is pure, I tell you: I am not attached to it (I hope) and it is love, and it gives me soft punches all the time in the center of my heart. Love is pushing me around the monastery, love is kicking me all around, like a gong, I tell you. Love is the only thing that makes it possible for me to continue to tick.” – Thomas Merton, from “The Sign of Jonas.”

I love the idea of love pushing me around; it’s so much better than being pushed around by the world or by what’s happening in my life at any particular time. If we could, like Thomas Merton, realize the tremendous importance of love in our ongoing in the world, how much more would we rejoice in the love process within us.

Love is a powerful solvent, melting hardness of heart, quickening appreciation of the mind, increasing the joy of our days and the ease of our passage through them. It is the “open sesame” that opens the doors to the treasures of life. Love often appears to be many things. Indeed, one of the many songs about love tells us that “love is a many-splendored thing.”  Actually, love is one essence distinguished in its various manifestations by the degree of its purity and selflessness that proceeds through the individual from the one great source in God.

In the Scriptures we read that “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” (I John 4:16) The quality of love that each person must radiate to clear the path that is ongoing is proportionate to the assurance, security and faith in the omnipresence of God. Love in its highest expression is the certain knowledge of the presence of good in all things, that God is in all, through all, and over all, knowledge that without Him nothing could be made that is made.

Some happy persons have attained the assurance to an eminent degree; they are so imbued with the consciousness of God in omnipresent good that they just radiate love without effort, without even speaking or acting; they just exude this conscious awareness of love. You may pass this person in the street, and be aware of an outstanding personality who seems without words to proclaim as the Scriptures say, “underneath are the everlasting arms.” (Deut. 33:27)

If we really love God, if we love life and ourselves and other people, then we are operating in harmony with the laws of life. Further, if we fulfill the law in this sense then our experience will be happy and fulfilling. If we are not happy, if our relations with others are not harmonious, if our world is not orderly and peaceful, it would follow that we are not as loving as we need to be in order to transform ourselves and our world.

To learn to express divine love is not always easy, but it is so very rewarding and is an accomplishment that brings tremendous satisfaction. It entails facing ourselves honestly, overcoming all the emotional reactions that fall short of the divine love such as pride, greed, resentment, jealousy, inordinate sensitivity, and of course this takes a great deal of effort. When we try to express divine love, we discover our true selves, and we find that we are free to be and to have all that makes life joyous and fulfilling.

The principle is that you cannot escape God’s love. If you ascend to the heights of spiritual consciousness, you find the activity of God. On the other hand, if you wallow in disease and lack, you are still in the presence of God though you are not aware of it. God is omnipresent, ever at hand, in good times and bad. The truth is we cannot get away from the presence of God; we cannot live apart from God. You can’t get away from God any more than you can get away from breathing. God is within and about you as your peace, joy, and life. When you darken your thought by believing the opposite of this, obviously you can’t perceive the truth. But God doesn’t leave you when you depart from Him in thought; His presence is always present.

The most futile thing in all the world is to try to escape God’s love. Many persons find their way in life difficult because they do not accept God’s presence in love. Consequently, they do not have enough love to radiate to others, or so they think. We could never think of the loveless person as one who is conscious of God’s love in his heart. There are those of us who cannot think of God’s love because we are so engrossed in what others say and do. If we hold in mind a wrong that someone appeared to do ten years ago or even ten hours ago, certainly then we cannot very well express love. Many of us hold ourselves apart from love because of our own unpleasant memories.

So, if we would enjoy life and the many blessings that make life worthwhile then we must love. Love is a powerful solvent, melting hardness of heart, quickening appreciation of the mind, increasing the joy of our days and the ease of our passage through them. It is the “open sesame” that opens the doors to the treasures of life. As Thomas Merton said, “Love is the only thing that makes it possible for me to continue to tick.” Let it be so with each of us as, we let God’s love “push us around” and let love lead our way.

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham
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Rev. Alan Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-eight years, invites you to enjoy more articles and/or subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at www.spiritualsolutionsblog.com

Feel free to share this article in its entirety with a friend. You may also reproduce and publish this article if you also include this reference box. Thank you!

If you’d like to receive “Rich Words,” featuring weekday inspirational quotes, you can subscribe at
www.alanrowbotham.com

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In a poem called “The Explorer” one verse goes like this:

“There’s no sense in going further – it’s the edge of cultivation,”
So they said and I believed it; broke my land and sowed my crop,
Built my barns and strung my fences in the little border station
Tucked away below the foothills where the trails run out and stop.
Till a voice as bad as conscience ran interminable changes
On one everlasting whisper, day and night repeated so:
“Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look beyond the ranges,
Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and waiting for you. Go!”

God has endowed man with the gifts of life, of wisdom, of creativity, of judgment – and with the tools of the material world around him. We are told, “Beloved, now we are children of God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be.”  (I John 3:2)

Why? Because we are involved in a great experiment to see what we can make of ourselves. Despite the tremendous developments of the world around us, the only world that has meaning to each individual is the world within him or her. And he or she is the only one who can explore that world!

In the creation of humankind, each person is made just a little different from others. There are no carbon copies, so no one experiment by one person can give a stock answer that will benefit everyone. Each person must undertake the experiment for himself, to see what he can do with this thing that is within him – this thing called life, his life, his very own special gift from God, his own uniqueness.

We seem to be made up of flesh and blood, a hank of hair, a few clothes, and certain conditions and surroundings. We seem to be very much the product of our environment.

But while we are thinking these thoughts, along comes an Emerson or an Einstein, a Schweitzer or a Jesus, and all the world marvels at such people and says that they are not made of the same kind of stuff that you and I are made of.

This is where we are wrong, because in reality an individual will never discover anything outside himself greater than he himself is inherently. When you hear the words of great persons, or hear great symphonies, or see masterpieces of art, these experiences are awakening within you that which has always been there, something within you that corresponds to what the masters have done and are doing. In a sense, they are giving you back to yourself. This is one of the many adventures of self-discovery in the great experiment of life.

If you actually believe in a power greater than you are, you come to know that you, as a human being, have nothing to do with the processes of life whatsoever. You live, but you did not create your own life; you think, but you did not create your own mind; you are spirit, but you did not make that spirit.

All at once we are confronted with a thought so stupendous that it almost staggers the imagination: There is something in me that is greater than I appear to be! And that something really isn’t myself, as a mere human being, at all. It is something which is God expressing Himself as me, something which is me as God sees me, something which is limitless, all-powerful, all-knowing. And because this something is spirit, it is always experienced to the extent of my realization, my faith, my vision.

St. Thomas Aquinas once said that there are only three really important endeavors in life: to have faith in the right things; to hope for the right things; and to love the right things. That is our job – and to press on in the expansion of our consciousness, to increase our faith in the infinite power that resides within us as the self that is yet to be.

(This article is adapted from an 1976 essay by Rev. Eric Butterworth, The Explorer)

Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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(This article is adapted from an original article by Colin Joss, of “Back Roads Marketing” in the UK)

The Beatles have always had a soft spot in my heart because when living in England before I moved to the United States, I had a very slight personal connection with them besides loving their music.

My martial arts instructor, Baron Omidi, had owned a nightclub in London before opening the Martial Arts School of Self-Defense where I attended and eventually achieved my black belt. Baron was the one who gave the Beatles their first start in London long before they became famous.

Also, my friend with whom I worked as a typesetter on the night shift in Manchester, England, for some time, lived next door to Paul McCartney’s then girlfriend Linda who later became his wife. We would often see Paul going in and out of the house. 

“All You Need is Love” was, of course, one of the Beatles greatest hit songs. And it expressed a great truth when it ended up with the words “Love is all you need.”

Love is an emotion that has inspired countless songs and ballads and stories and lives. Love is an emotion for all ages from the womb to the tomb. Love is an emotion that takes different shapes and forms, from maternal love to filial love to love between partners in relationship to love for friends. Love is a powerful emotion that (is said to) transcend all.

Love is a decision. In a relationship, once the initial heart-stopping “crush” has worn off, the relationship is sustained by a “decision to love.” Once the rose-tinted glasses are off and the idiosyncrasies of the “other” have stopped being charming and cute, commitment is called for.

Ernie Larson, author of Stage II Recovery, said that a relationship can be described by a telephone wire. The two poles holding up the wire are the partners in a relationship and the line strung between them is love. The wire or the love can flow only as long as both poles are upright, neither pole can support the wire on its own.

Love is a powerful, positive energy. The universe is filled with love, it is filled with positive energy. This positive energy is available for all of us to tap into. Love will fill us with peace and tranquillity. Love can make the whole world live in perfect harmony. Actions inspired by love are noble actions.

The Law of Attraction tells us that “like attracts like.” It says we need to fill ourselves with positive energy so that we attract positive energy. Then we need to focus single-mindedly on our goal, on our ambition. The positive energy and the focus on our goal, with the unwavering belief that we can achieve our goal, will make our dreams come true, will give us the sweet taste of success.

Our dreams are within our grasp, but success does not come easy. It requires focus and dedication. It requires us to embark on the journey toward our goal. Along the way there will be potholes and road bumps. Along the way there will be crossroads that will allow us to choose whether to continue on our journey or to change tracks completely. At times the road will be so bumpy that we will need to take a diversion. Our focus on our goal, however, will always bring us back to the road.

Along the road we will also meet many passersby, most of whom will be strangers. We will have the choice of nodding to them in greeting or not meeting their eye and just passing by like ships in the night. We may also choose to let them walk by our side and exchange stories with them. The shared experience will make us richer. We may choose to help them carry their burden or we may choose to take up their offer to lighten our own burden. The journey will seem shorter and easier with another by our side.

As we develop a relationship of love and fill ourselves with positive energy, the road bumps will get smoothened and the road will seem straighter. The road to our goal will be full of choices we need to make and we will have the freedom to choose.

Remember, God is Blessing You Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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(An article by Susan Apollon)

Life is filled with choices and directions we can take, but I believe the key question we must ask is: Do we choose to live a life founded on love or not? Science has validated the wonderful power of love; however, even if you put science aside, most of us figure out, as we move through our years, that what matters most is this thing called Love.

Not too long ago, a friend sent me a poignant story that had been circulating on the Internet—demonstrating the beauty and power of love. The story had to do with an older gentleman, who had been to his doctor, telling the physician that he was concerned about being on time for his next appointment—a meeting at a nursing home with his wife, who was living with Alzheimer’s. The gentleman explained that though he went daily to be with his wife, she had not recognized him in five years.

The doctor was surprised about his need to be on time since his wife did not remember or recognize him. The man’s reply, essentially, was, “She does not know me, but I still know who she is.”

The doctor who wrote the article shared that she was so deeply moved (as I was) by this man and the love he felt for his wife, that she had to hold back her own tears. The doctor continued, stating that she hoped to, one day, find such love.

The doctor’s words were, “True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True Love is acceptance of all that is, all that has been, will be, and will not be.”

From my perspective, whether this encounter actually took place is not important; however, the message is. Having treated patients who have loved ones with Alzheimer’s; and having personally known some who live a similar situation, this piece touched my heart.

Love is the reason you are here. Had this man been you, would you have chosen to love in the way he did? Choose wisely because the very heart of your existence rests on the quality of your choice.

May you enjoy days filled with blessings of love every day of your life.

—Susan Barbara Apollon, Intuitive Psychologist
Author of Touched by the Extraordinary

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Remember, God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham, a Unity minister for over thirty-seven years, invites you to subscribe to his free inspirational newsletter, “Spiritual Solutions,” at Spiritual Solutions.

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I dreamed I had an interview with God.

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.

“If you have the time” I said.

God smiled. “My time is eternity.”

“What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”

God answered…

“That they get bored with childhood,

they rush to grow up, and then

long to be children again.”

“That they lose their health to make money…

and then lose their money to restore their health.”

“That by thinking anxiously about the future,

they forget the present,

such that they live in neither

the present nor the future.”

“That they live as if they will never die,

and die as though they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine

and we were silent for a while.

 And then I asked…

“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons

you want your children to learn?”

“To learn they cannot make anyone

love them. All they can do

is let themselves be loved.”

“To learn that it is not good

to compare themselves to others.”

“To learn to forgive

by practicing forgiveness.”

“To learn that it only takes a few seconds

to open profound wounds in those they love,

and it can take many years to heal them.”

“To learn that a rich person

is not one who has the most,

but is one who needs the least.”

“To learn that there are people

who love them dearly,

but simply have not yet learned

how to express or show their feelings.”

“To learn that two people can

look at the same thing

and see it differently.”

“To learn that it is not enough that they

forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”

“Thank you for your time,” I said humbly.

“Is there anything else

you would like your children to know?”

God smiled and said,

“Just know that I am here… always.”

-author unknown  

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In the Second Conversation of Brother Lawrence, we learned that he had always been governed by love and had resolved to make the love of God the end of all his actions. For the first four years in the religious life, he had been troubled in mind and expected the worst for his life, and initially it took a great deal of diligence to form the habit of conversing with God continually.

He found that in speaking to God plainly of his shortcomings, with the confidence that God would give him the strength to overcome them, he could release any concern he may have had. He realized that negative thoughts needed to be rejected as soon as they were perceived, and that his only business was to love and delight in God, and recommended that approach for all of us.

Now we turn to the THIRD CONVERSATION:

He told me that the foundaton of the spliritual life in him had been a high notion and esteem of God in faith; which when he had once well conceived, he had no other care at first but faithfully to reject every other thought, that he might perform all his actions for the love of God. That when sometimes he had not thought of God for a good while, he did not disquiet himself for it; but, after having acknowledged his wretchedness to God, he returned to Him with so much the greater trust in Him as he had found himself wretched through forgetting Him.

That the trust we put in God honors Him much and draws down great graces.

That it ws impossible not only that God should deceive, but also that He should long let a soul suffer which is perfectly resigned to Him, and resolved to endure everything for His sake.

That he had so often experienced the ready succours of divine grace upon all occasions, that from the same experience, when he had busines to do, he did not think of it beforehand; but when it was time to do it, he found in God, as in a clear mirror, all that was fit for him to do. That of late he had acted thus, without anticipatinng care; but before the experience above mentioned, he had used it in his affairs.

When outward business diverted him a little from the thought of God, a fresh remembrance coming from God invested his soul, and so inflamed and transported him that it was difficult for him to contain himself.

That he was more united to God in his outward employments than when he left them for devotion and retirement.

That he expected hereafter some great pain of body or mind; that the worst that could happen to him was to lose that sense of God which he had enjoyed so long; but that the goodness of God assured him He would not forsake him utterly, and that He would give him strength to bear whatever evil He permitted to happen to him; and therefore that he feared nothing, and had no occasion to consult with anybody about his state. That when he attempted to do it, he had always come away more perplexed; and that as he was conscious of his readiness to lay down his life for the love of God, he had no apprehension of danger. That perfect resignation to God was a sure way to heaven, a way in which we had always sufficient light for our conduct.

That in the beginning of the spiritual life we ought to be faithful in doing our duty and denying ourselves; but after that, unspeakable pleasures followed. That in difficulties we need only have recourse to Jesus Christ, and beg His grace; with that everything became easy. 

That many do not advance in the Christian progress because they stick in penances and particular exercises, while they neglect the love of God, which is the end. That this appeared plainly by their works, and was the reason why we see so little solid virtue.

That there need neither art nor science for going to God, but only a heart resolutely determined to apply itself to nothing but Him, or for His sake, and to love Him only.

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