April 30
"I
rest in God."
"I
am as God created me."
PRACTICE
SUMMARY
REVIEW IIIPurpose: A second chance at the last 20 lessons, a chance to face how little you have learned and learn greatly by applying idea to everything in your life. You will gain such large advances that you will continue more firmly and solidly.
Overall Remarks: Please follow this format as closely as you can. If you miss a practice period because it was impossible to do at the appointed time, learning is not hindered. You need not make these practice periods up. If instead you missed because of unwillingness to give the time, learning will be hindered, and those practice periods should be made up. Be very honest with yourself. Do not camouflage your unwillingness with situations seemingly beyond your control. Learn to discern between this kind of situation and situations that are truly unsuited to practicing. Your unwillingness comes from choosing other goals over salvation. As soon as you choose salvation again, do your make-up practice periods as a replacement for your devotion to other goals.
Longer: 2--in morning and in last hour before sleep (ideally first and last 5 minutes of your waking day) 5 minutes (longer if you prefer)
* Read over the day's ideas and comments.
* Then lean back in faith and let your mind use them as it chooses. Let it think about them and relate them to your needs, problems and concerns. Trust your mind to do this wisely and to be guided by the Holy Spirit, for He has chosen your mind as His means for saving you. He has given these ideas to you in perfect faith you will use them well. Give them to your mind in the same perfect faith.
Shorter: at the beginning of every half hour for a moment
* Repeat applicable idea (on the hour, the first idea; on the half hour, the second idea).
* Allow your mind to rest in silence and peace for a moment.
Remarks: These shorter practice periods are at least as important as the longer. Do not forget them. You have tended to skip these and not apply the idea to all that you encounter. Your learning has thus been limited and its gifts weak.
Shorter/Response To Temptation: in between the half hour marks
Do not lay the idea down after the half hour reviews. Take it with you into your affairs and apply it to them, making them holy. If you forget or your peace is shaken, think of it again.
Remarks: The practice periods are meant to teach you the habit of applying idea to everything you do. The idea is meant to serve you with unlimited usefulness at all times and places and whenever you need any kind of help.
COMMENTARY
Every now and then I'm glad my old high school English teacher taught me to diagram sentences. I find myself doing things like noticing the main phrases in a sentence like this: "I rest in God and let Him work...while I rest...". For me, today, what this says is just to relax and trust the process. Just to "let go and let God," as the saying goes. Sunday is traditionally a "day of rest" in the Christian tradition, and for most of us, a day in which it is convenient (more than other days) to practice resting. Periodically it is beneficial to take one day, and consciously make it a day of rest for yourself. That doesn't mean you might not do something productive, but if you do, it will be because it is something you enjoy doing, something you want to do.Today I want to remember PEACE.
Sometimes I get so worried I won't make it. I pick at the scabs of my healing mind, wondering when they will heal completely. I fuss and wonder what else I can be doing to make the healing happen faster. Fussing just makes it worse. Fussing is what I am being healed from. So let me rest today. Ahhh!
As I rest, my Father tells me Who I really am. "The memory of God comes to the quiet mind" (T-23.I.1:1). When I allow myself to settle back in spirit, I find a firm foundation, the bedrock of my Self, as God created me. I'm OK. The turmoil I am so concerned about is nothing but "sick illusions of myself." What I am is just fine, and I don't have to protect It. I am home. I am whole. I am safe.
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
All rights reserved.