Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you have a great holiday and enjoy giving gratitude!

Here are two inspiring blog posts about the healing effect that gratitude has.

It seems like a lot of people–including Oprah–think gratitude is healing. Is it really healing or does it just make you feel better?

…This experience helps to illustrate the two ways that I’ve come to think about gratitude. First, it can be a means for rising higher in thought so that I can commune with God and reach the summit of what God is seeing or knowing. Seeing things from God’s perspective is kind of like the view you see from the top of a mountain: The completeness and glory of the view are always there, but the fullness of that view becomes increasingly apparent the higher you go. Only at the summit do you get the full 360 degrees— where no part of the view is blocked….

Thanksgiving Grace

…Imagine the effect of the intention of sincere gratitude being expressed by millions of hearts in one day! I believe this effect can be healing, because whenever the heart is full of remembered blessings, how can there be room for hurt, resentment, anger, bitterness, fear? When those negative feelings are not remembered, well, they simply disappear. Healing is the lasting effect…the healing effect of grace….

Restoring relationships

Recent news reports involving a shooting say that there isn’t enough evidence to determine what actually happened or a satisfactory verdict. Even though the human justice system may not be able to bring about a satisfactory result, I pray with this statement and know there is another kind of justice system always working within us that does not have the limitation of human laws:

Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. Psalms 139:23-24

There is such heartfelt humility in this passage admitting that perhaps there is some hidden evil in thought and desiring to be completely free from it through God’s redeeming grace.

God, divine Love, knows all of our thoughts and motives. God is pure Love itself, immortal being and eternal Life, which doesn’t include any darkness. So, as we draw nearer to God, Spirit, the darkness in our thoughts and hearts disappears — just as the darkness disappears when you turn on the light in a room.

Beloved children, the world has need of you, — and more as children than as men and women: it needs your innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontaminated lives. You need also to watch, and pray that you preserve these virtues unstained, and lose them not through contact with the world. What grander ambition is there than to maintain in yourselves what Jesus loved, and to know that your example, more than words, makes morals for mankind! —Mary Baker Eddy 

The light in each of us is shining in the world. We all have innocence, pure affection and the healing power of grace within us to transform past hurts and restore right relationships.

Just as a baby is incapable of prejudice because he shines spiritual joy and love towards others, we can bring that same pure, fresh light — childlikeness and grace — to our relationships (including family members, neighbors, and community members) and restore them.

I was always there

Sometimes finding a solution to a problem can take a while. It may require patience, persistent prayer and not giving up.

But God is right here guiding us; He always been and always will be. Sometimes we don’t see it until later. It reminds me of the scene with Humpty Dumpty in the movie Puss in Boots — except not in a creepy way, but in a good way!

http://bit.ly/15Tsh1m

Praying about global issues today (hungry children, young girls living on the streets and environmental issues) showed me that God is embracing each one of these dear people and is eradicating these troublesome issues. God’s will for each one is peace, harmony and perfection.

“Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation.” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health, p.332)

“Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? …. If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Matthew 7:7-11 NRSV)

Yes, seeing the complete resolution of these issues may take some time. But prayer does make a difference, and as we each open our thought to seeing results from our prayers, we will experience blessings that make a difference every day.