Resentment, resentful, angry?

 Have you ever seen a cat all settled calm maybe even purring one minute and then puffed up with back arched the next time you see him? What is his natural state of being? Calm, happy, purring or puffed up, afraid, angry?

As the children of God what is our natural state of being? As God is Good, loving, tender, merciful, isn’t that our natural state of being as well? So what is the resentful, angry, hostility that comes to try to mar our natural, calm state? Aren’t they temptations of the hater, tempter, destructive and destructible evil?

So when these temptations of being angry and resentful come to us can we not take a stand for our true calm, happy nature? Doesn’t God not only create man in His perfect calm image but also reveals to us how He is protecting us from the temptations?

David sings his precious Psalm, “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.”¹

Mary Baker Eddy, the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, states, “The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God’s spiritual, perfect man.”²  

Our calm joyful nature is ours. We get to be this perfect image and likeness of what God is and is doing. We get to take a stand against the false character and rejoice in our dominion. When one stays in their true nature it is easier to stay above the temptations. But when we fall for those temptations we can feel lost in the waves of turmoil and the sea of emotions.

Let us be free and calm instead of captives to anger and resentment. Let us be buoyed by God’s divine nature and the truth of our being, His perfect reflection. Let us stay safe in His tender truths and not be reactionary to the false claims that there is something or someone who can disturb us from our true calm nature. Let us see that by being our true selves, Love’s children, the calm, loving, ideas of God, we are free.

Let us be cool cats and stay calm. Let us rejoice that our nature is God's nature, loving, tender, calm. Purrrrfect.

Gentle hugs

1 The King James Version of The Holy Bible Psalms 107 vss. 29-31
2 Science and Health with Keky to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy page 99 lines 23-29

Teach me!!!

 This morning in reading a poem by Louise Knight Wheatly called, “Teach me to love”¹, I began to pray those same words. But it grew from there. It was more than ‘teach me to love’. But also, ‘teach me how to pray, to think, to serve, to give, to share, to forgive’! TEACH ME! 

A prayer of frustration, perhaps, but one from a meek heart, a yearn to see things from a higher perspective, the standpoint of Love.

In looking up the word ‘meek’ in several dictionaries I found the definition I had been looking for for years. It was ‘teachable, the ability to be taught’.

In times of need, how we long for better ways. When things are not working out, how we wish for better thoughts, activities, expressions of love. When we see how lacking our own personal views are, how we treasure those times of spiritual growth. It all comes from the meekness, the teachable attitude, the waiting to learn a higher expression of life as God reveals His Life to us.

Through that desire, that meekness, those moments of deep desire, when we finally get tired of trying to do things from our own lacking personal beliefs, we turn to the highest source, God, Mind, divine Life itself for all the answers.

At times in life we are brought down to our knees both figuratively and literally. But these moments of childlike cries of need we are brought up higher. Higher not in our own selfish view of a ‘me’ or ‘I’, but of God’s highest view of His perfect creation, Man.

The sincere cry, “Teach me” has been prayed throughout the ages. We read David’s plea throughout his Psalms, “Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.”² “Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.”³ “Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.”⁴ Just to share a few of his many “teach me” prayers.

Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians states, “Pray without ceasing.”⁵ Our constant thoughts of ‘ceaseless prayer’ can and should include, ‘Teach me, O Lord’. But it can also be the acknowledging, the affirmation, ‘You do teach me, O Lord, Your perfect ways. You do lead me by Your still thoughts about me and all. You show forth Your constant Love. You are my God, in You I do forever trust.’

Mary Baker Eddy states, “In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet                  sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God's allness. We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We must "pray without ceasing." Such prayer is answered, in so far as we put our desires into practice.
       The Master's injunction is, that we pray in secret and let our lives attest our sincerity.”⁶

God knows all, does all, expresses all Good through man. Let us turn to Him for all things. Let us let Him teach us today what He is and what we reflect of Him. Let us meekly turn to Him ready to be taught His Love, His ways, His strength and ability. Let us let these teachable moments lift us above all to the highest views of God.

I need Thee every hour,
Most gracious Lord;
No tender voice like Thine
Can peace afford.

Refrain
I need Thee, O, I need Thee;
Every hour I need Thee;
O bless me now, my Saviour,
I come to Thee.

I need Thee every hour;
Stay Thou near by;
Temptations lose their power
When Thou art nigh.
Refrain

I need Thee every hour;
Teach me Thy will;
And Thy rich promise, Lord,
In me fulfill.
Refrain⁷

Gentle hugs

1 Poem entitled “Teach me to Love” written for the Christian Science Journal and published in 1908
2-4 The King James Version of They Holy Bible Psalms 25 vs. 4; 86 vs. 11; 119 vs. 33
5 ibid I Thessalonians 5 vs. 17
6 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy pg. 15 lines 14-24
7 Christian Science Hymnal No. 137

God's constant care

Feeling afraid? Feeling uncared for, untended to, burdened, lost? By praying we are lifted up above those feelings. We are lifted up above the turbulent fears. Prayer is a conscious turning to God for help and freedom. When we turn to God in prayer He reveals to us His constant care for us. Why? Because He loves us as His beloved sons and daughters, His perfect creation, His delight.

Having a hard time knowing how to pray? Precious prayers that we may all give to God may be found in our Holy Bible. One of them we can turn to is, “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart”¹

“…unto them that know Thee;…” When we are consistent in our turning to God we can see His loving protection throughout our days. As we learn to let go of our own personal will, ways, views and opinions and learn to turn to God we are lifted up above the fears that so easily pull us down.

Need fresh thoughts, happier views, better ways? Look up…see God’s lifting effect, His constant care and love for us.

We are told that we are taken care of like the eagles take care of their young. Such as in Deuteronomy where we read, “As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.”²

We can learn to trust our heavenly Father-Mother God to take care of us, protect us. God is loving us; He created us to be His perfect image and likeness. He is delighted with His creation. He sustains us and maintains us. God is always ever with us. God is revealing His care for us. All we need to do is learn to trust in Him!

The quote from Mary Baker Eddy, "The divine Mind which forms the bud and blossom, will care for the human body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal interfere with God's government by thrusting in the laws of erring, human concepts."3  reminds me of a precious story I just heard last week...

Once a hail storm was coming and a woman was so concerned about the baby eagles high in their nest that she had been watching and enjoying for days. She thought maybe she should ‘do something’ but didn’t know how to reach them, how to care for them, how to get them back in their right place after the storm. She was trying not to be upset but thought she should ‘do something’. She started to pray for the right answer for how she could save the birds. Instead she received a life lesson for herself.

The winds started, the hail began, looking out the window she could see the mother’s wing span stretched completely out over the large nest. The bird was covering, sheltering her brood. She was laying flat on the nest with her head down and everyone protected by her wings. The mother weathered the storm and her babes were sheltered by her care and love.

We are those baby birds. God is sheltering us under Her mighty wings. She loves us, cares for us, and tends to our needs. We can see this if we stop trying to ‘do something’. By learning Her love for us and trusting Her constant care, we can become free from the frightening storms in life. We can enjoy Her protection for us, all the days of our lives. In good times or in hard times if we turn and trust in Love we can see it, feel it and be protected by it.

God blesses us with His constant care.

“Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast. I will cry unto God most high; unto God that performeth all things for me. He shall send from heaven, and save me from the reproach of him that would swallow me up.  Selah.  God shall send forth his mercy and his truth.”⁴

“Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.”⁵

Let us learn to turn to God for our every need. Let us learn how to trust Him. The way to do this is to constantly turn to God for our every thought and care. This turning to Him for our every need teach us that He is with us every step of the way. God is protecting, loving, and tenderly caring for each of us. Let us look up to God and see His constant care.

He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.”⁶

Gentle hugs

1 The King James Version of the Holy Bible Psalms 36:7-10
2 ibid Deuteronomy 32 vss. 11, 12
3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy pg. 62 line 23
4 The King James Version of the Holy Bible Psalms 51 vss. 1-3
5 ibid Psalms 63 vs. 7
6 ibid Psalms 91 vss. 1-4

Expecting or Dreading?

 David says in Psalms, “My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength and my refuge, IS IN God.”¹

Do we spend our day expecting Good, the Good that only God brings to each one of us? Or do we dread today, fear tomorrow and regret yesterday?

When one looks at the day and days ahead from the standpoint of our having to ‘do something’ through faulty education, lacking knowledge, frustrated understanding, life can become pretty discouraging fast. What if we turned to this passage and looked at the joy this writer feels about His day with God?

First, David waits for God’s guidance. Second, he sees that God is his expectation. David must see that God is very good if he is waiting expectantly on Him who is his ‘rock’, ‘salvation’, ‘defense’. He is immovable when it comes to his stance in waiting expectantly for God. He sees that not only is God His salvation but a refuge, a place to dwell in and rest his thoughts upon. The Psalmist is determined that God is the All of everything he needs, wants and expects in his life that must be very good.

When we realize that every day is filled with this God who is all Good, the One who created us to be expectant and joyful. Then we can see that He is giving to each and every one of us this standpoint of salvation in our day and lives. 

Can we see that by moving our faulty thoughts and views from dread, lack, confusion and possibly regret we too can expect this God of glorious good?

In the Bible it states that we are His ‘daily delight’². Do we feel delightful, delighted, happy? Happiness comes from a perspective that David is coming from. As one who is expecting great goodness, he sees that in this waiting there is something worth waiting for, there is something to be happy about. 

It is important that we see that happiness doesn’t come from physical appearances, physical situations, physical relationships. But through a changeless bountiful spiritual existence, which comes from God through us and is ever-present and powerful.

This power comes from God’s all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting wisdom. God is the intelligence of the universe including Man. Our lives lived through this intelligent, harmonious and spiritual Being, God, brings to us better decisions, more harmonious Being, wisdom and joy. When we base our lives, our days, our future on the firm foundation of this perfect Divine Intelligence, we begin to see everything that we are going through harmonize.

God doesn’t know evil, bad, unhappy circumstances. Love only knows what He is giving to us, Love, joy and goodness. Love doesn’t see these things because they were not created by, sent by, or used to punish us by this all loving God. God only sees what He has created us to be, reflections of His all Goodness.

With this understanding our lives harmonize as we seek His ever-presence, His Laws, and His Goodness. We can expect a day, a life filled with Good. We can wait patiently for His all Goodness and stop trying to do things on our own. This helps us to stop feeling like we are constantly dreading and dodging the ugly circumstances in our lives that we have created through ‘self’. Lives lived through ‘self-indulgences’, ‘self-justification’, ‘self-pity’, and all the etc. ‘selfs’ create havoc in our lives which can be removed and replaced with the expectancy of Good. God is giving to each of us His sense of rightness and perfect Selfhood. Divine Self as the only Perfect Self, Love, is constantly giving to us the right ideas that helps us during our days. By reflecting what God has for us we begin to see through the pain, sorrow, and confusion. God lifts us above these to His higher view point of what He has for us each and every day.

"Then I said unto you, Dread not, neither be afraid of them.³” Deuteronomy 1: 29

“Hold perpetually this thought—that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being.”⁴

Let us start expecting Good, Love, by holding our thought perpetually towards the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is that One who knows all, does all, manifests all. It is the One who knows the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘when’, and ‘with whom’ of our everyday lives. It works through and with the Christ, Truth. The Christ is that Truth which brings all mankind forward, through, and to all the healing answers and divine solutions that we need. We can joyfully expect this spiritual guidance to bring us through our days and years from the standpoint of Good, not dread.  

“Come we daily then, dear Father,
Open hearts and willing hands,
Eager ears, expectant, joyful,
Ready for Thy right commands.
We would hear no other voices,
We would heed no other call;
Thou alone art good and gracious,
Thou our Mind and Thou our All.

In Thy house securely dwelling,
Where Thy children live to bless,
Seeing only Thy creation,
We can share Thy happiness,
Share Thy joy and spend it freely.
Loyal hearts can feel no fear;
We Thy children know Thee, Father,
Love and Life forever near.”5

Gentle Hug



1 The King James Version of the Bible Psalms 62 vss. 5-7
2 ibid. Proverbs 8 vs. 30
3 ibid. Deuteronomy 1 vs. 29
4 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy pg. 496 line 15
5 Christian Science Hymnal No. 58

God's Angels

“O longing hearts that wait on God

Through all the world so wide;

He knows the angels that you need,

And sends them to your side,

To comfort, guard and guide.”¹

 

Dear hearts,

God knows us. His ever-presence is revealed to us by His angel visitants speaking of His constant love and care. If we are still and turn from the tumult of the media, the pressures of the finances, the loneliness of all our struggles, to Him the God of Love, we will see Life as it is all harmonious.

Christ Jesus walked over the waves of the foaming sea, feed the multitudes without a ‘job’ or selling something, healed the sick, and raised the dead in direct opposition of all the chaos and struggles of that time. He revealed to us ‘Immanuel—God with us’².

David said in his Psalms, “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.”³

He was speaking not only of Christ Jesus which the devil repeated tempting him after his forty days of prayer and fasting, but to us all. He, God, gives us His angels charge over us, to keep us in all our duties. The angels bear us up in their power, lest we dash our foot against a wisdom or rule. We get to not only be protected by these angelic communications from God. But we are also taught lessons by them.  Whenever we falter, fight against one of God’s commands through admission or direct denial, His angel messages turn us back to His ways, directing our paths back to His constant progressive control.

Christ Jesus showed time and time again the power that his/our Father does for all. His healing nature, His protection, His constant love is for us all to witness and prove.

The revelation that God sends His angels to us constantly directing, guiding, sheltering, tenderly tending to our every need is a power that would change our lives if acknowledged.

Why do we not hear or feel these angelic messages? It is because we have not trained our thoughts to turn to Him, to listen for His direction. We think we ‘have it covered’, that we can do it, take care of it, ‘figure it out’. But can we?  Look around, how are we doing? The chaos, noise, tumult, fear, and anger that people are feeling reveals that we aren’t doing it well on our own.

It is like having the TV on and not seeing a weather alert because we have tuned it out. Instead we have our ear buds in our ears listening to loud music ignoring the warnings. We cannot hear the alerts unless we look up and see the warning on the TV. How does this pertain to God and His healing messages? We must remove all obstacles and turn our attention to God to hear, see, and to know better.  We must learn how to focus on God alone.  Then we will be as those in the Bible who had a direct line of communication from God to man to turn to, follow, and be saved by.

“O wake and hear the angel-song

That bids all discord cease,
From pain and sorrow, doubt and fear,
It brings us sweet release;
And so our hearts find peace.”⁴

Let us awaken to the realization that God is with us every step of every day. He bids all discord to cease, all pain, sorrow, doubt, and fear. He brings to us all sweet release from these and all burdens. We find our peace in His Love and He in turns sends His angels to bear us up at all times revealing to us His tender constant care.

Gentle hugs  

1 Christian Science Hymnal Hymn No. 9 vs. 3
2 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy page xi line 16
3The King James Version of the Holy Bible Psalms 11 vss. 11, 12
4 Christian Science Hymnal Hymn No. 9 vs. 4

"Do Good fear not"

Being a ‘goody-two-shoes’ all my life, with a strong sense of Principle, it shocks me when I find that I have accidentally fallen for the ‘crowd mentality’. Seeing us as unique individuals, not followers of crowd mentality, it always surprises me when I find out that I have fallen for some kind of mislead theory or desire based solely upon the crowd’s pushy agenda. 

Last night in watching a show I found that this mentality was trying to sway me in a big way through 'compassion'.  But compassion that helps the wrong isn’t compassion it is pity, which is melancholy, which is wretchedness.  Compassion without Divine Reason isn’t compassion at all, it is just following like sheep instead of the constructive Rule of “Feed my Sheep.” (Christ Jesus in John 21)

My love for God and His Idea, Man, makes me be even more compassionate.  It is the compassion of a wise mother to not let her child go astray.  It is the strength of conviction of a mother who says, ‘No’ when it would be so much easier to say, ‘oh, alright.’

God’s rules are in place for Man’s safety, not because God is proscriptive and cruel.  It is said that, God’s ways are higher than our ways.  His view and understanding is from the All-knowing Mind.  He knows what promotes happiness, health, and it is always through purity and goodness.

Any form of activity that isn’t from God’s expression can never bring us to a higher source of Life, Happiness.  The lower debase expressions of thought and deed are always led by the motivation of the ‘evil one’, which isn’t and can never be what leads us to our highest sense of Good. 

Good is power.  Good is purity.  Good is what God is and is doing.  Good is spiritual.  Good is upright and freeing.  When we follow, look to, express Good, we are blessed and brought up and out of the muddy thoughts of the ‘crowd mentality’, where all is confusion, chaos, and the works of the one evil. It is important to place our lives and activities on the highest sense of Good, so that we know and follow it up higher and higher every day.  It leads us to the recognition that we are in the kingdom of heaven. 

Evil, debase thinking and activity, leads us always downward.  It sounds ‘good’, sometimes even wise, such as the serpent in the Garden of Eden, but it always ends up in despair.   It always leads us into bondage, slavery to the senses, fettered by dis-ease, in a stranglehold of discomfort and sadness…melancholy. 

"Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore. For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: but the seed of the wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit the land, and dwell therein for ever. The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment. The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide."¹

“Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil." ²

“Every step towards goodness is a departure from materiality, and is a tendency towards God, Spirit. Material theories partially paralyze this attraction towards infinite and eternal good by an opposite attraction towards the finite, temporary, and discordant.”³

“Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness:  conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can.”⁴

We must be strong in our understanding and faith in Goodness.  It takes us forward to higher realms of thought and activity.  It frees us from the bondage of evil.  It brings to us triumph and peace. There will be a struggle between the ways of wrong and the ways of righteousness (supreme Goodness).  But the battle is worth it.

Gentle hug


1 Psalms chapter 37 verses 27-31
2 I Peter chapter 3 verses 11, 12
3 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy page 213 lines 11-15
4 Message to the Mother Church, 1902 by Mary Baker Eddy page 17 lines 22-25