Being Open to Love

A young boy was studying the Bible in Sunday School class and he was very upset by a story in the Old Testament. A man was gathering sticks on the Sabbath and God said through Moses that the man must die for violating the rules of the Sabbath, so the people took him outside the camp and stoned him. When his class got to the New Testament a few Sundays later, the little boy heard the story of the Pharisees coming to Jesus to complain that disciples were picking corn on the Sabbath and God said through Jesus, "The Sabbath was made for man; not man for the Sabbath.'

At that point, the little boy cried out "Boy, God suregot nicer in his old age, didn't he?"  The truth is, God didn't get any nicer! God's Love for us never changes, but the consciousness of humanity shifted because of the presence of Love that Jesus was.  And that presence of Love is what we are as well.

And our consciousness is still shifting and growing and expanding. It expands every time we enter into conscious union with Love. Our consciousness expands every time we pray or meditate, every time we forgive someone (including ourselves) every time we are open to gratitude, and every time we turn away from our limiting and false beliefs. The Love of God, or Spirit, is fully available 24/7/365.

If our idea of God, or a Higher Power, isn't one of absolute love, let's commit to changing our mind about that. And that would be a wonderful way to begin 2015.

Remember, there's nothing you need to do first and nothing you need to change about yourself. When you are ready to receive God's Love, it is there!

Give Peace a Chance

We talk a lot about peace, but what is peace exactly? Is it the absence of war or conflict or noise? Is peace thoughtfulness and mindfulness? Is it a form of love or even self-love? Is it about honor and respect? Is peace compassion and understanding? I think peace could be all those things and more.

Whatever we think of when we think of peace, itstarts within and often our "within" is not too peaceful. We have our ever-present 'monkey mind' talking to us and it isn't always peaceful; in fact, our monkey mind could be fearful, judgmental, and downright rude. When we listen and think it is the truth, we are usually not feeling too peaceful. We may feel worried or anxious or less than or better than or scared or fearful or tentative or doubtful. And none of those feelings promote feelings of peace and joy, do they?

The truth is the peace of God is within. And in order for us to experience that peace, we need to tune in and become aware of it. That means no more negative self-talk and no more destruction of our dreams or anyone else's dreams. That means no more shame, blame, or resentment. We need to look at our life, our experiences, and our circumstances and embrace and love and accept all of it.

You see when we are at peace, we accept ourselves and others. We are compassionate, understanding, and kind because we are peaceful within and don't feel the need to change anyone else and we accept all people. We have nothing to prove. We are poised to take the next step. We have the freedom to be ourselves. And what a gift that is.

Be yourself and be amazed at what shows up in your life when you focus on what you have rather than on what you don't have. And we always have enough of God's peace, power, purpose, and possibilities!

Are You Feeling It?

A lot of emotions come up for many of us this time of year. Although we are "supposed" to be happy and joyful as Christmas approaches, some of us have a sense of sadness or grief.  It could be because of the loss of a loved one, the loss of a relationship, or a sense of loneliness. We may feel unhappy because of the stress of shopping, the financial burden of the holidays, or dealing with family issues.

There is often a conflict within us because we hearin New Thought we can't allow ourselves to experience negative emotions since we don't want to create new experiences from these negative emotions. We have to be happy and if we are not, we are told to "fake it until we make it." We are told to focus on what we want and not on what we don't want -and we don't want to feel unhappy, depressed, lonely, or mean.  

So it is completely logical that we suppress our negative feelings. We avoid them and we deny them but they come up and we think we are failing at being "good" metaphysicians. It's time to give ourselves permission to feel our emotions, to identify our emotions but not to identify WITH our emotions. it is through our emotions and all the situations in our life that we evolve and grow. Let's learn to love and adore the tapestry and majesty that make up our own life. It's all God!

My Christmas wish is for every person to recognize that everything - all emotions and all situations - is an expression of the One Life, the One Love, and experiences the freedom to live authentically.  Right on!