Spiritual Solutions

Thanksgiving Day is almost upon us, and at this time it brings me to thoughts of family. Our family is scattered around the globe, in England, New Zealand and Australia, as well as around the United States in California, Washington State and Iowa.

We’ve had some additions to our family in the last couple of months – two great-grandchildren, a baby boy in California and a baby girl in Washington State, and our nephew and his wife in Australia had a baby boy.

We had a great visit with our granddaughter Emma, from England, recently. She and two friends from the university where they are students came to Florida to do some research on hurricanes and hurricane preparation. It was refreshing to see the enthusiasm and exuberance they brought to their task, and the enjoyment they got out of it all.

Our grandson in England recently graduated from Gloucester University with a Bachelor of Science degree and honors, and is now running a gym and teaching physical education and nutrition. And our granddaughter in California graduated earlier this year from San Diego University with two degrees.

As you can tell, we are proud of our growing family. We just wish they were closer in proximity so we could be together more often, especially at special holidays such as Thanksgiving.

I know there are many people without families, and it is especially hard at holidays when families traditionally get together. But for all of us, I think we can expand our understanding of family to include everyone. In other words, that in truth we’re all family, one with one another. We can reach out to friends and all people to embrace them in the consciousness of family and share love and gratitude with each other.

Notice I said we can embrace and reach out to share love and gratitude. That means love and gratitude begins within, and is not dependent upon external circumstances. Thanksgiving starts within us, it’s not a matter of what am I thankful for, but what am I thankful from? What am I grateful from? Let your consciousness rest on a divine flow of gratitude from your inner being. We can be grateful from that consciousness that we are forever one with the divine flow, giving thanks from the consciousness of oneness with God.

I remember Janie Paulson, the former Unity minister, who loved to sing and have everyone sing “We’re a family; we’re a family, a family of love!” Be still – know your oneness with God; that God is the one reality at the heart of you; that you live and move and have your being in the heart of God. Get your consciousness in tune with the divine flow, giving thanks from that consciousness. As the song says,

“Our family is a little world,
Of ten, or six, or three;
Our family is a larger world
With billions just like you and me.

“We live together, that’s the way;
We live together as we say,
We’re a family, we’re a family,
We’re a family of love!”

As Paul says, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” (I Th. 5:18) He didn’t say “for” all circumstances, he says “in” all circumstances. In other words, you have the sense of gratitude, and you give that gratitude, that praise, that thanksgiving regardless of what the conditions and circumstances are around you because you are keeping in touch with the divine flow. You give thanks from the consciousness of your oneness with God. You are grateful for the realization you are a spiritual being and that you have within you the capability to cope with all the changing circumstances of life.

When you begin with gratitude in this sense, I think you will find that gratitude and thanksgiving will take on an entirely different meaning. In the process you will have a much broader perception of the inherent good that is within all things, and you will begin to find that it is much easier to give thanks for the many blessings in your life.

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

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The key to Thanksgiving is the greatness that is within us.  When we are grateful, we are full of greatness, and we relate to life at the highest level of our being. We think good thoughts about our circumstances and people. 

On the evening news sometime ago there was story of a farmer in a small town in Indiana. He had been weakened by a serious illness and the subsequent chemotherapy and radiation treatments, so much so that he was not able to operate the equipment he needed to harvest his crop of corn. 

The story told how a group of neighboring farmers came together in their desire to help the farmer in his distress.   Even before they harvested their own crops, to the utter amazement of the farmer who had been unable to do it himself, they used their own machines to harvest their neighbor’s corn for him. 

One of the farmers was asked about his involvement in this project and why he took part in it. With a smile he responded that he didn’t want to be left out, he wanted to be in the loop along with those who wanted to help their neighbor. 

The story reminds me that the Hebrew word for thanksgiving also means “a stretching forth of open hands.” In this consciousness our question of “What do we have to be thankful for this Thanksgiving?” becomes instead “What do we have to be thankful from?” And the “give” in Thanks-giving takes on the more important role. 

This way of thinking about Thanksgiving can open the way for a dynamic experience for you. Practice it this Thanksgiving, and you will experience a release of tremendous power.  

Look away from the challenges and the needs whatever they may be, even from the obvious blessings of life, and make your inner contact with the creative process of Spirit. Then stretch forth your hands in a giving consciousness. Let your mind think God thoughts, good thoughts, and positive thoughts.  Rather than look about and wondering what you have to give thanks for, you will rejoice in what you have to give thanks from, and you will give it freely and lovingly.  So the true Thanksgiving experience which any one of us can have should be a day of forgiveness, a day of praise, and a day of giving ourselves to others. 

 The following audio recording consists of excerpts from a message I gave on Thanksgiving Day in 1998 at First Unity Church in St. Petersburg, Florida. I think you may find something of value in it, so if you would like to listen to it turn up the sound on your computer and just click on the play button. Or download it to your computer if you wish.

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On that Thanksgiving Day in 1969, I wasn’t feeling particularly thankful as I entered the third floor of the Activities Building which at that time served as Unity Village Chapel.

I had just started ministerial school that summer, but it seemed that everything was falling apart. I had just gone through a divorce, my four children had returned to England with their mother two years to the day that we had come to America with all our hopes and dreams, and my father had died in England two months previous.

I’d not really been aware of Thanksgiving Day for the last two years, although I do recall we had been invited to dinner with friends. We didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving Day in England, you know. 

So I didn’t seem to have much to give thanks for on this day, set aside by Presidential proclamation for personal and national contemplation of the blessings of life.

When The Rev. Jane Paulson invited us to join in a meditation of thanksgiving I was feeling pretty raw inside from my losses. But something broke inside of me and I began to cry.

Then instead of focusing on what I had lost and didn’t have anymore, I began to give thanks for what I had and where I was.

By the time The Rev. Sig Paulson stood up to give his message my tears had stopped and I was in a more receptive state.

As Sig spoke he began to lead us in a series of ever-escalating affirmations of thanksgiving, and my tears began to flow again. I felt like breaking down and sobbing.

At the end of the service I rushed out of the building and over to the Peace Chapel, a small chapel with just six chairs for prayer and meditation. Fortunately for me, there was no one else in there. I lay down on the floor and sobbed my heart out.

Then I sat in one of the chairs and a great quiet and a deep peace came over me. I felt the flow of Divine Love through me, and I intuitively knew the true inside story of Thanksgiving.

Not only did I have many things to give thanks for, but I also had a new consciousness of the indwelling Spirit of God to give thanks from.

This concept of Thanksgiving will open a way for a dynamic experience if you really think about it for yourself.

Look away from the challenges and needs, whatever they may be, even from the obvious blessings of life, and make your inner contact with the creative process of Spirit. Let your mind think God thoughts, good thoughts, and positive thoughts.

Rather than looking around and wondering what you have to give thanks for, you will rejoice in what you have to give thanks from. Practice it today, so that this day will be for you a release of tremendous power and you will know for yourself the “inside story” of Thanksgiving.

This new insight into the deeper meaning of Thanksgiving can also help prepare you for the reawakening of the divine level of the Christ in you as we move into the Christmas celebration of the birth of the Christ child.

Recognizing the Christ within you is the most glorious thing you can possibly experience. You can begin at anytime to show your true identity, and this recognition will bring about the rebirth that Jesus referred to when he told Nicodemus, “You must be born anew.”

Kathryn joins me in wishing you the richest Thanksgiving and Christmas of your life, rich not only in the outer things, but rich in warmth and friendliness and new understanding.

God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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Thanksgiving is not for God, but for us. Praise raises our consciousness to a level where we easily respond to the divine flow. When it is “the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom,” the need is to get our thoughts on the level of acceptance.

Thanksgiving is a way by which we raise our thoughts to that level of acceptance. Thus, thinking good is thanking God.

To say, “I thank God,” and still thinking negatively is self-deluding. In a very real sense, if a person thanks God and still is filled with negativity, he is something less than “bearing witness to the Truth.”

The Thanksgiving principle is the key to positive thinking. Negative thoughts are normally centered in how bad things are. Turn your thoughts from what you have not and realize what you have in terms of your access to the Universal flow. Give thanks from this awareness.

Suddenly you are in a positive frame of mind. This thought is your realistic Thanksgiving. The Spirit within is a ceaseless urge to express in and through and as you. Thus, when you become “affirmatively receptive” by your good thoughts, it is as if the Spirit claps its hands with joy because you have made yourself an “organ of its activity.”

Thus, we do not have to thank God for things, but rather to “enter in and experience the Thanksgiving feast of the mind” and give thanks from the awareness of it.

True gratitude makes us great, increases our feeling of self-worth, expands our ability to see the good in people and situations, and thus to extract the best from life. When we become “affirmatively receptive” to the divine flow, we begin to see things from God-consciousness, and we actually project a flow of good.

Giving thanks for our many blessings is good, but there is so much more. Thanksgiving can be an active projection of good through seeing transcendentally.

It is a good time to take a Thanksgiving walk, even if in imagination, and project a blessing to people, conditions and things. It is a beautiful time to salute the divinity withi people, all people, and to celebrate the good everywhere. Take your Thanksgiving walk and raise your hands to people in blessing, even if not literally then figuratively in your own consciousness.

You can make every day a Thanksgiving Day of celebration. Resolve to raise your thoughts to the highest possible level about people, conditions, and things, knowing that thinking good is thanking God.

 God is Blessing You, Right Now!

Rev. Alan A. Rowbotham

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