Abundant Horizons: living each day as a new beginning

Patience has to be one of the virtues we all have a hard time practicing in our lives.  Life today has become embued with speed and busyness.  When adrenaline is driving us internally it is extremely hard to exhibit patience and keep up with the pace of the world around us.  Yet patience is a key virtue to getting everything we want in life.  When we learn to practice patience and let our bodies relax, calm down, slow down… we physically destress ourselves, which is a good thing.   We find that in that destressed moment we can actually see humor in things going on around us.  If we’re stressed we are NOT going to see humor in anything. 

For those of us that desire to see our dreams and goals manifest in our lives the virtue of patience is absolutely key to getting want we want.  First and foremost we must learn to have spiritual and conscious maturity.  What does this mean?  Spiritual maturity is the understanding that we must rely on our relationship with God to help us achieve  the abundant lives we desire.  We must turn to prayer to build our spiritual relationship and to build our trust in God.  I am talking about our private and personal conversations with God.  God will answer all our prayers BUT they will be answered in God’s timing and his own way.  This is where patience enters into the picture.  We want to see answers to prayers today, right now, this very moment.  But this is NOT how it works.  God has His own timeline and methods in answering those prayers that are far beyond our understanding of how those prayers will be answered.   Sometimes our prayers trigger events in our lives we don’t we understand.  We feel that our lives begin to turn upside down.  What is GOD doing to me, we ask when this happens.  Patience and trust are key to allowing answered prayer to be played out in our lives.  Sometimes this patience must be exhibited for months even years.  But if we desire something greatly the waiting time — the patience we live with will make the outcome so much more sweeter.

When I speak of conscious maturity I am talking about the practice of patience we exhibit with one another.  Without this type of patience you will find yourself living in a state of frustration.  Frustration can often lead to a depressed state of mind.  Depression leads to unwise choices in our lives that only pull us further away from God and our desired life.   Can you see the spiraling affect that not practicing patience in our lives can lead to?   Patience is one of the most important virtues we can grow in ourselves. 

Patient people draw others to themselves.  They exhibit calmness and a level-headedness that is extremely attractive.  They typically have less problems with ulcers, headaches and even the formation of wrinkles!  Have I sold you on the idea that you need to work on being more patient in your life — I hope so.   How to practice getting more patience?  Take several deep breaths, close your eyes, and smile.

I know that I have covered this subject a lot in the past.  But I find that it bears continuous repeating because it is a habit that many of us feel we have no control over.  This is a lie that we tell ourselves.  We do have the choice to worry or not to worry.  Many years ago I tried to figure out if worrying about a thing would actually impact a change.  I found out that it certainly did.  Whatever I worried about actually came about in my life.  Sometimes it took a while but sure enough eventually the inevitable happened — what I was worrying about manifested in my life.

I now know that the Law of Attraction states that what we think about on a continuous basis impacts our subconscious. This, in turn, tells the mind to accept these thoughts as the truth and, therefore, finds a way to have it manifest in our lives.  So if you are worrying about something going wrong in your life — guess what – you are attracting that thing to you. 

So you ask, how do I stop the worrying.  How do I switch this habit off.  As both a spiritual person who knows the laws of spirit and a logical left-brain individual who appreciates the science behind an action, I love to learn both sides of an issue.  When I realized that worrying wasn’t going to bring me a positive solution to a problem I made the decision, yes, you are seeing this correctly, I MADE THE DECISION that worrying was a great waste of time and energy.  I figured if I wanted to change or see a different outcome I was going to have to figure a different way to tackle it. 

Well, as many of you know who have been readers of my blog, I realized a number of years ago that I have really very little control of the outcomes in my life.  I will take control of my actions, my behaviors and my thoughts, but the final outcomes are really out of my control.   I can do what I feel is the right thing to do.  I can pray and ask God to help me discern what is the right path and decision to make, but I don’t control the final outcome.   I have come to realize in my spiritual journey that I have to rely on those that have even greater experience then me on many of these issues.  One such person, that I greatly admire because of her down-to-earth nature, her logic, and her humor is Rev Joyce Meyers (www.joycemeyers.org) .  I try to watch her half hour program several times a week.  Today she covered this very subject of worry and taking responsibility for what we allow in our minds.  I hope you find this session as enjoyable as I did.

http://www.joycemeyer.org/ourministries/broadcast/

I am amazed how much apathy, anger, frustration and fear I encounter these days.  I realize that the world offers its challenges.  But, the only reason it appears people are so deeply affected by all of this is because of our heighten exposure to immediate information and media speed.  The world has always offered its ever changing environmental impacts, death occurs everyday, and new challenges will continue to pop up for mankind to address.  This has been the history of this planet and it will continue to always be this way.  But, I believe, it is the “in-your-face” exposure that we now live with that perpetuates our anxiety and stress levels far greater then in the past. 

So we have choices.  We can continue to feed the fear and continue to breakdown our immune systems, or we can turn outside ourselves and put our faith into God who can change a situation at the blink of an eye.  Too many of us forget that God does control it all.  The world is not controlled by the human race.  Our actions and decisions do impact the world but they don’t control the outcomes.  Only God controls what will happen to each and every one of us. 

In spite of what appears to be a doom and gloom situation, we do have a very hidden power within each one of us.  In Colossians 1:27 Paul points out that “the Christ is within you”.  When you use prayer or use words or affirmations that identify you with the Christ, you awaken, arouse and bring to life the Christ within you.  When you can open your mind and open yourself up to the Christ-mind within yourself you have the ability, through prayer, to affect the life around you.  Your prayers can change a situation to the betterment of all concerned.  Understand that this power is to be done for only good.  If you speak words of condemnation, those words will come back to bite you.

With this understanding we can use prayer to impact anything in our lives.  Speaking to a number of educators I found a sense of discord because they felt they had little ability to verbally speak of prayer or recite prayer in their classrooms.  They felt that the only way that children could be affected in a positive manner was for them, the children, to recite prayers within the classroom.  But, what they fail to see is that they, the teacher, do have the power to pray for his or her students.  To pray for happy, successful outcomes for all their students, and to individually pray for any one student who may be exhibiting more difficulty then others.  This is choice that only that teacher can make for themselves.  Additionally, by demonstrating their own patience, loving attitude and acknowledging good student behavior, the values they want to impart and see in their students will affect the entire student body. 

This same practice can be done by managers, supervisors and bosses toward their employees.  They have the power to pray for the “highest good of all involved”, including the customers that they will encounter that day.  What happens when one person prays for the highest good of all involved.  Miracles!  You will see more positive outcomes from individual behavior from all involved then you can even begin to imagine.  Yes, one person, who prays for “the highest good of all involved” can change the environment. 

If you don’t believe me.  Try it.  Try it for a week and see what happens.    Don’t know exactly what to say.  Here are a few affirmations you can use.  I encourage you to find a quiet spot so you can verbally state your prayers and affirmations out loud. 

Jesus Christ is teaching this class.  The peace of Jesus Christ reigns supreme in this class.  I bless each student with the peace of Jesus Christ and all is well.

The peace of Jesus Christ is poured out upon this situation now, producing perfect results now.

I release my life (this situation, this person) to the perfect out-working of the Christ consciousness now.

Christ in me is producing perfect results in every phase of my life now and all is well.  I relax, let go and let HIM.

I am so blessed to live in the Pacific Northwest.  We have greenery year round that begins the tip of the Western part of the United States that leads to Alaska, a state whose beauty is beyond words.  But I, like you, sometimes forget the natural beauty that surrounds me everyday.  Instead, I get caught up in checking emails, comments from readers of my blog, paperwork that requires my attention, and a number of other activities that make up my day.  I do spend time each morning to thank God for all the blessings HE provides me and I do this in front of a view of my home that shows me the beauty I am surrounded with. 

In spite of this I sometimes don’t take the full advantage of just sitting outdoors in quiet respite just listening to the sounds of nature.  Today I spent over an hour just sitting in the shade of what will be a very hot day (expected to hit the mid-90′s) enjoying the wind, the birds chirping and just plain enjoying the beauty of my surroundings.  I didn’t have a laptop sitting in front of me.  I didn’t have my headphones for an IPod stuck in my ears.  I didn’t have a television blaring noise in the background.  Instead I sat in silence just listening to the natural noises of my yard.  I closed my eyes and just listened.  I also enjoyed the calmness of the light wind blowing on my skin. 

I purposely tried to erase all thoughts of the demands of my life and chose to quiet my mind and to try to just commune with nature.  Sometimes these communes serve me an opportunity to hear the voice of God.  For I know from experience that God speaks to me in a very quiet voice not trying to compete with the noise and activity that often makes up my day. 

I know that you, dear reader, are also battling with a lot of activities and especially the electronic noise that we’ve allowed to become our norm these days.  I would urge you to schedule sometime to just unplug yourself and commune with nature – even if that means just taking a walk around your home or office building.  Try to truly see and hear what is going on around you.  Take a moment to sit quietly and just breath in the beauty of your surroundings. 

Even if you are in a large metropolitan area where trees are hard to find, a walk around your surroundings will still do you a world of good.  I grew up in a large city and took advantage of sunny days and great weather whenever I could.  Remember when you did the same as a young kid?  Try to revert to those days and give yourself a break.  By doing so you’ll find that it calms the mind, it relaxes the tension and it provides a spur of energy you just might need.

Good luck and enjoy the balmly days of Summer!

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if everything in life was always just.  Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone above the age of two that hasn’t ocasionally felt life was sometimes unfair.  Some of us walk around actually feeling like we are targeted for unfair treatment.  It seems that if something could go wrong, it invariably does go wrong.  Needless to say, if this person is you I would venture to guess that you are not exactly walking around with a smile on your face and a twinkle in your eye. 

In fact, I would probably guess that you might even have friends and family that avoid being with you because something always seems to happen to mar the day when you’re around.  I hope this isn’t you.  But sometimes we do go through periods in our life when it sure feels bad being you.

Ralph Waldo Emerson stated “It is impossible to be cheated by anyone but yourself”.  How can Emerson make such a bold statement.  That we, ourselves, are responsible for the unfair treatment we encounter?

In her book, The Prosperity Secrets of the Ages, Catherine Ponder addresses overcoming injustice using the example of Joseph from the Old Testament, who experienced the ultimate injustice in his life.  Yet, despite being sold by his brothers into slavery, being cheated of the promise of marriage to his beloved by a cruel and manipulating father-in-law, being imprisoned for a crime he never committed, and spending many years in bondage, Joseph never lost hope and did not spend time complaining about the injustices he underwent.  Joseph knew that he would see justice in his lifetime if he just kept believing in GOD and knowing that GOD would take care of him. 

To quote Catherine Ponder, “If you think you are being unjustly treated by relatives, friends, employers, or by your government, invoke the activity of divine justice.  This is the most enduring reform which you can apply to the situation.  When you are in doubt as to the right thing to do in seeking justice in your affairs, ask that the eternal spirit of justice come forth into the situation and reveal to you that which is your own good.  Then accept the results that come, whether they are what you personally expected or not.  Justice works in mysterious and surprising ways.. 

“Conversely, if you are tempted to criticize and judge others, declare:  ‘I no longer condemn or find fault with others.  Neither do I belittle or condemn myself’. 

“When you affirm divine justice for yourself and others, you become more loving.  You refrain from all manner of criticism.  You keep your eye fixed on the good.  Your mind thinks more clearly.  You develop a more kindly disposition.  In fact, a wonderful renewal of your whole being takes place.”

I believe that Emerson’s comment of our creating our own injustices stems from the fact that we see personal affronts in the actions of others.  If this sounds like something you struggle with and would like to see more divine justice in your life I have included some wonderful affirmations that will help draw positive divine justice into your life.

I use my imagination to see only the good, and I reap a rich harvest of goodness.

I am at peace because I trust Divine Justice to regulate all my affairs now.  I have faith in divine justice and I now trust it to set right every condition of my life now.

Today and everyday I expect the best.  Wonderful things are happening to me now.  Everything I do turns into good for myself and others.  Wonderful things are bound to happen and they do.

This is one of my most favorite affirmations (prayers) that I verbally claim out loud everyday.  What is so amazing about affirmations is that for beginners it may feel strange and not true.  But consistent use of affirmations on a daily basis begin to change that mind set from “it’s not true” to “its possible” to eventually “it’s true”.  When your mind finally accepts that such an affirmation or statement is true that is when you will begin to see the words come to life in your external world. 

The use of this affirmation has created a magical existence for me.  The most incredible wonderful surprises come without any effort from me.  Outcomes are consistently positive regardless of how impossible a situation may look from the outside.  Understand that when I receive such wonderful surprises, monetary and non-monetary gifts, acts of kindness, invitations to delightful events, and so much more I am not shy about expressing my gratitude to the provider and to God.  A sincere sense of gratitude is so important to keep the flow of good coming to you.  This abundant receiving is only one side of the Law of Giving and Receiving.  I realize that I must open my mind to giving for the abundance to keep flowing to me.  I give with an open and grateful heart. 

My giving includes regular tithes, special monetary gifts, notes of appreciation, a small gift that the recipient might like, prayers for their well-being, donations of food to my church’s food pantry, special donations for specific needs, my time in a volunteer basis, and any other way that I feel I can show how grateful I am for the blessings I receive everyday. 

Expecting the best is just what I mean.  I don’t let thoughts of failure or disappointment enter into my mind.  Believe me I’m not implying that that is an easy thing to do but it is possible to have control over what you think about.  Most of us relive our past failures and project them to our future expectations.  We CAN control whether or not we allow this to continue.  You have to be thoughtful when those negative thoughts begin to creep back into your mind.  You can do this by being aware when the negativity starts to creep in and stopping.  Telling yourself to STOP these thoughts and think about what you want to have happen.  This is a discipline all on its own to master.  But daily affirmations that affirm expecting the best is a good way to start.

How many times do we walk around and make statements that are negative in nature and then find ourselves surprised when the outcome is exactly as stated.  Do you realize that every time you verbally state a point of view, a declaration (positive or negative), or a prediction, you are actually prophesying the future for yourself.  So many times these statements are made without any forethought or idea of what we are even saying.  I once had a friend who boldly declared ….”that WHEN I have cancer…”.  I was taken aback when I heard her words.  When I pointed out to her what she had just said, not if she ever was faced with cancer, but WHEN she will have cancer, she was surprised that those words came out of her mouth.  She wasn’t even aware she had said them.  How many times do we do this to ourselves in any given day.  We declare a disasterous outcome as if it is a given.  The Power of Prophecy is so incredible that it can make or destroy a life.

In her book, The Power of Positive Prophecy, Laurie Beth Jones explores the impact our words leave on children when they are told what will become of them in the future.  If the statement, or prophecy, was either positive or negative, if left an indelible mark on that child’s brain (and soul) and was the impetuous for their success or failure in life.  The words were so impactful that they subconsciously strived to make that prophecy true in their lives.  The words didn’t even have to come from a family member, although the words that we tell our children are the most devastating ones in their lives.  A child who may never had any encouragement from their homelife but had one person in their life that believed in them and told them so made all the difference in that person’s future success.  The individual in many cases were teachers, coaches, a neighbor or even the parent of a friend. 

Can you imagine if you could make one honest positive statement or compliment to one child and know that your words would map that child’s future. Wouldn’t you feel empowered of such a feat?  Well, you do have that ability.  This is not just true of children.  Your words can dramatically impact another’s life.  In the study of those that were considered child prodigies, where an innate and exceptional talent manifests at a very early age, just enhancement of those skills and talents would not have been exemplified if there had not been at least one person who prompted the child’s natural inclination of that talent.  When you are told you are very good at something and you see reward from enhancing those skills you can become expectional in your performance.  If,  however, you are told that you are not ”good enough” those same skills will be hampered by ever developing to their fullest because of the belief that you are NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

Once we become really aware of how powerful our words are, more thoughtfulness of what we say should become our way of living.  Imagine what a life you could create for yourself and for others if you became really aware of how powerful your words are.  If you truly believed that your words could change your world wouldn’t you become more careful of everything you said (or at least try to be careful of everything said).   Wouldn’t you be more careful about the criticisms you say about yourself if you believed that your words were self-actualizing your future?  Of course you would or would you?

In a small devotional that is called “Experiencing God: day-by-day”, written by Henry Blackaby and Richard Blackaby, there are spiritual thoughts for each day of the year.  The scripture-based thought of the day for July 10 was addressing the concept of bitterness.  I will quote the entire thought and then comment afterwards:

Looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble.  Hebrews 12:18

“Bitterness has a tenacious way of taking root deep within the soul and resisting all efforts to weed it out.  Bitterness occurs for many reasons.  It might come from deep hurts you received as a child, hurts you cannot forget.  Time, rather than diminishing the hurt, only seems to sharpen the pain.  Bitterness can result from the hurtful words of a friend or coworker.  Often the person who hurt you is unaware of the extent of your bitterness.  You find yourself rehearsing the offense over and over again, each time driving the root of bitterness deeper within your soul.  Bitterness can derive from a sense of being unjustly treated.

Bitterness is easy to justify.  You can get so used to a bitter heart that you are even comfortable with it, but it will destroy you.  Only God is fully aware of its destructive potential.  There is nothing so deeply imbedded in your heart that God’s grace cannot reach down and remove it.  No area in your life is so painful that God’s grace cannot bring total healing.  No offense committed against you is so heinous that God’s love cannot enable you to forgive.

When you allow bitterness to grow in your life, you reject the grace of God that can free you.  If you are honest before God, you will admit the bitterness and allow God to forgive you.  Bitterness enslaves you, but God is prepared to remove your bitterness and replace it with His peace and joy.”

Upon reading these words I was struck by the analogy of having a small seed or piece of food that gets trapped in a small crevice of the mouth and if not addressed in a timely manner can burrow deep into the tooth and into the gums of the mouth.  When such a thing happens it can be painful, it can turn into a diseased condition and it can in turn become a poison in the body.  All this from a small little thing that gets trapped in our system.  This is how bitterness works.  We make the decision to be offended by someone else’s action or words.  They may not have a clue what their words or behaviors did to us, but we take those actions, those words and begin to own it in our minds.  We are hurt, we are offended.  We cannot believe this person could say or do something so insensitive to us.  When we choose to “embrace our offense” we have taken on the beginning of bitterness.  The more we hold onto the thought of the offense and how it hurt us the bigger this becomes, and the more angry we become. 

Anger and bitterness fester in our hearts and in our souls if we allow them to.  The sad reality is by choosing to live with our bitterness the more the poison filtrates our heart and our body.  The medical community is finding that there is a connection between anger and bitterness to the diseases we are being diagnosed with.  Cancer and heart disease is being linked to the long term effect of anger and bitterness.  Ulcerative stomach issues are connected to the stress in our lives.  There is a connection to what we allow to enter our hearts and minds and how it manifests into external health issues.

As the devotional passage states, bitterness can be defused by praying to God for help in allowing the anger to subside.  By forgiving the offense and letting go of the anger we can begin to change our level of well being and our relationships with others.  After all, wouldn’t you rather enjoy a good laugh with someone then trying to avoid seeing them because you are angry at them?

I just finished reading a wonderful article in the July 5, 2010 issue of Fortune magazine.  The cover shows Bill & Melinda Gates and Warren Buffet under the heading “The $600 Billion Challenge”.  The story is about the three wealthy individuals goal to create a movement where the super wealthy of this world would commit to providing 50% of their wealth back to charity over their lifetimes or at death.  It is a wonderful and inspiring story which also includes Warren Buffet’s own personal Philantropic pledge for the world to read.

The spirit behind this article brought tears to my eyes.  For it exemplifies the generous heart of giving that everyone should live by.  A good life goes way beyond just seeking the sensual pleasures of our physical and material needs.   It must include a real sense of giving.  Giving is only one half of the law of circulation.  What you give out you get back.  I know many of you will think to yourselves, “Well, yeah, look at the money these folks have, they can afford to give – I would too if I was in their shoes”.  Would you?? Would you really??  If you are not now giving even a couple of dollars to others what makes you think you’d be willing to give hundreds, or thousands (or millions) in the future. 

A giving heart is a giving heart.  As Warren Buffet states “This pledge will leave my lifestyle untouched and that of my children as well.  They have already received significant sums for their personal use and will receive more in the future. Some material things makes my life more enjoyable; many, however, would not.  I like having an expensive private plane, but owning a half-dozen homes would be a burden.  Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner.  The asset I most value, aside from health, is interesting, diverse and long-standing friends.”

A giving heart goes beyond providing monetary gifts or contributions to charity and to the church.  It is the desire to help others in providing your time, your attention, and sometimes your physical muscle power.  I challenge you to think of how you give back to a world that has given you so much.  How can you “up” your giving in either money or time to others in need.  The internal satisfaction you will receive, along with other spiritual gifts that you will see come into your life, are beyond the imagination.

I find it amazing to see how many people walk around this great Earth thinking they have the ultimate control of things in their lives.  They think that if they plan things out, live by precise schedules, make their opinions known to others (insisting in many cases that others also comply with their opinion), making sure everyone in their family complies to their desires, assuring that everyone in their workplace knows how it’s expected to get done, that life will be grand because it is now in order! 

Dear reader, if some of these descriptions sound like you, I have some news for you — you are living of life of delusion!  You can no more control what is going to happen in your life, and especially the lives of others, then you can control the weather.  If you are by nature a “control freak” please know that this may be why you are feeling so “out of control”.  This may be why you are suffering from health issues.  This may be the reason you so seldom hear from friends or colleagues.  It may be the reason your children don’t call very often (if at all).  It may be the reason you are having trouble sleeping at night.

I don’t mean for this to sound like a depressing sermon, but I am sharing with you that you may have to “let go” and release this need to control in order for you life to become more joyful, lighter, and meaningful. 

The only thing we should be controlling is our personal behavior and the choices we make in life.  This is THE ONLY thing we can control.  God gave us each free will and a brain to think through our actions.  HE also gave us an internal conscientiousness to assess whether our choices in life are living in accordance to HIS will or if we are choosing to do it “MY WAY”.  You can choose to do it your way, but understand that sometimes that choice will be in possible conflict with what GOD wants for you.  If that conflict arises GOD will not desert you.  But, HE may choose to sit on the sidelines and watch while you try to do it without him.  HE may wait a long time for you to finally call out for his help.

But, you ask, if I can’t control what happens in my life, then what’s the sense of getting up in the morning??  What’s the point of planning my life?  You can and should be identifying those things and accomplishments you wish to come to fruition in your life.  You just need to run them by GOD to see if they run in parallel with what HE wants for you.  It may very well be that this is exactly what God wants for you.  You will find that when this is the case everything just starts falling into place.  It becomes an easy delightful experience where “wow by coincidence the right people and circumstances” suddenly pop up for you.  No, dear reader, this means that this is the path that GOD is desiring you to take. 

You see, when life seems to be a constant struggle even though you thought you worked out all the possibilities for success, but failure just keep happening, it’s because you are trying to rely on your “control freak” factor instead of asking GOD to guide you.  When you finally let go of the control freak factor in your life you’ll find that life starts being so much more fun, filled with constant surprises and joy. 

Do you need a scriptural passage to confirm my words?  Read Philippians 4:6-7, “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything.  With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God.  Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand.  And this peace will control the way you think and feel.”