May 27
"My
mind holds only what I think with God."
"I
will not value what is valueless."
"Let
me perceive forgiveness as it is."
PRACTICE
SUMMARY
Review IVPurpose: To prepare for part II of the Workbook, by concentrating on readiness for it and by reviewing the last 20 lessons in a way that will facilitate that readiness.
Longer: 2--beginning and ending of the day for 5 minutes or more.
* Open your mind, clear it of all distracting thoughts. For five minutes let this thought alone occupy it, displacing all others: "My mind holds only what I think with God."
* Read the day's two ideas. Close eyes and repeat ideas slowly, without hurry, for this is what time was made for. Let each word shine with the meaning God gave it. Receive from each idea the gift God placed in it.
Remarks: Phase 1 will be enough to set your day along the lines God planned, making it a special time of blessing for you and for the world. It will be enough to place Him in charge of all your thoughts. Your thoughts will come from more than you. They will also come from Him and tell you of His Love. Thus will you, His completion, join with Him. And He, your completion, will join with you. He thanks you for your practicing. And as your day ends, His gratitude will surround you.
Shorter: hourly, for a quiet moment
* Say: "My mind holds only what I think with God." Spend a quiet moment with it.
* Then repeat the day's two ideas, slowly enough to see their gifts and receive their gifts.
COMMENTARY
Let me, today, look at the things I value and reconsider them all. Why am I doing this particular thing? What is it I am valuing here? The things we value are often quite foolish when we look at them. For instance, when I have begun to experience the nourishing warmth of true intimacy in relationship, nothing seems worth the closing off of that warmth. I recall reading about a fundamentalist church that split up over the issue of whether or not it was sinful to plug in a guitar. How, I wondered, could anyone value anything like that enough to shut out from their hearts people who had once been close friends? So many relationships break up over issues that seem just as trivial.
Forgiveness sees that nothing is worth shutting another child of God out of my heart. We have so many absolutes in our consciousness, things we consider more important than love, more important than unity, more important than our own peace of mind. Have I come, yet, to value peace of mind above everything else? Have I come to the point where anything that interferes with the flow of love through me is quickly discarded?
We need to become aware of the source of our own pain. We ache when we close down our hearts. We ache when we refuse to forgive, when we latch on to the wrongs that have been done to us and fondle them over and over, refusing to let them go. "Love holds no grievances" (W-pI.68). Forgiveness is a gift to myself; it is a release from my own pain. What am I valuing above the free flow of love, the warmth of union with my brother or sister? Let me choose to no longer value this valueless thing, and choose to forgive.
Let me take five minutes this morning, and five minutes tonight, to open my mind and clear it of all thoughts that would deceive (W-pI.rIV.5:2). Let me brush aside lesser values, and remember that my mind holds God's own thoughts. Let me value these thoughts above all else. Let me rejoice in the congruence of my mind and God's Mind, and recognize that this blending of my mind with God's, this sharing of His thoughts, is all that is truly valuable to me.
Copyright © 1996, The Circle of Atonement, Sedona,
Arizona, USA.
All rights reserved.