Tag: love

Marriage

Published on by lindseybiggs6 Comments


People say that marriage takes a lot of “work”. That sounds a bit daunting. I’m discovering that marriage is a “witnessing of each other’s spiritual identity.” The “work” is because relationships hold up a mirror and show us where we need to grow.

Marriage is witnessing that your spouse is the loved and cared for child of God. When we look to man as the source of fulfillment, or perhaps to keep us from feeling lonely, or to satisfy all our hopes & dreams, we are disappointed. There will come a time when that person is not around or too busy or simply incapable of fulfilling your hopes and dreams. In these moments we have the glorious, healing opportunity to turn to God, divine Love, and realize we have never been alone; we have always been tenderly cared for by our Father/Mother God who is satisfying our hopes and dreams right now because She made them in our heart.

Each month there is a something special read at my church. For me it is such a blessing and a guiding light in my relationships. I pray with this passage each morning as prepare for my day. It’s called “A Rule for Motives & Acts” and it goes like this:

Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness. The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously.

As I meditate on this each morning it gives me stillness and humility to take through my day. It helps me see that my will isn’t the “right” will; my unsolicited advice doesn’t encourage someone else’s new discovery; my judgement doesn’t heal others; looking down at someone doesn’t enable them to rise up; and influencing someone doesn’t help them turn to God – the source of all true guidance for that individual.

I humbly pray and strive to express this “rule for motives and acts” more in my daily life. And it alerts me to see that marriage can be “attacked” by these harmful characteristics; if entertained, they can uproot the seeds of joy, hope, patience, and unselfishness that have been planted in marriage.

Here are some closing quotes that have helped keep me spiritually grounded in marriage:

Soul [God] has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul [God].

Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.

Mutual compromises will often maintain a compact which might otherwise become unbearable.

Kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations are necessary to the formation of a happy and permanent companionship.

Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man.

All the quotes shared in this post are by Mary Baker Eddy; they can be found in her main written work Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Resentment

Published on by lindseybiggs2 Comments


Resentment is subtle. It’s not full-blown anger or hatred. We can still communicate with someone, even live with someone, while feeling resentful. Resentment feels like a tarnished penny that you find on the ground. It still has value and functions but it is tainted by the world.

We can uproot resentment in our thinking! And then we can feel like a shiny penny with joy, love, compassion and vitality.

Here’s one way I did this:

A couple of weeks ago I was feeling resentful. I felt like I was being put upon by someone else and that weren’t being compassionate and considerate of my feelings and the things that I needed. This resentment was a sort of “poor me” attitude and a self-justification on why I had the “right” to feel this way. And everything I did came with a burden – tasks that had been completed suddenly came unraveled, annoyance and discontent were manifesting throughout my household, and my thoughts and outlook on life had gotten bitter.

This went on for a couple of days until I knew that I had to pray about it. Feelings such as these do not come from God and so they are lies, something that we don’t need to be deceived by; and we can conquer the deception of these lies through prayer.

As I prayed, I saw that God really is the one Mind; and this Mind (a synonym for God in Christian Science) is governing and controlling every aspect of our being with perfect intelligence. There isn’t my will, a my family member’s will or a co-worker or church member’s will. There is only God’s will. Everything is governed and controlled by God with divine intelligence, fairness, compassion, mercy and love. And God’s guidance blesses everyone!

I had to be willing to see the good in this situation – all the ways that I was blessed because of it including ways that I was growing and things I was learning. I knew that I couldn’t be left out of what God was doing. If God was blessing others, then I was being blessed, too.

“What is it that harms you? Can height, or depth, or any other creature separate you from the Love that is omnipresent good, — that blesses infinitely one and all?” (Mary Baker Eddy’s Miscellaneous Writings 1883-1896)

With this realization, all resentment melted away. This time in my life became extremely valuable. My household became smooth and harmonious again; tasks were completed in a timely way, and I felt the joy and promise of good again. I learned a lot; I grew in compassion; I feel more at peace; and I know that I am and everyone else is always included in God’s love and blessings.

 

Bringing God into the minutiae of your day

Published on by lindseybiggs3 Comments

“Spiritual sense is the constant, conscious capacity to know and understand God.”

“…spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth.”

“Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality.”

Unknown: “That which spiritual sense alone comprehends , and which is unknown to the material senses.”

We all have a spiritual sense. Spiritual sense is the means through which Spirit/God, divine intelligence, guides us. This spiritual sense is something that we all have but it must be cultivated. We have to practice using it so we don’t get rusty.

Try going through each day using your spiritual sense. Sometimes we may think there are things too small to be guided about. But God is always governing his children, always guiding them, caring for them even in the minutiae of our every day. Cultivating this conscious, constant communion with God shows us that we are never alone. We always have our Best Friend, our Father, Mother, God with us.

Our Father-Mother is governing each day perfectly. We are part of an interconnected orchestration of being. This interconnectedness is in perfect harmony and is like God’s great song, a beautiful melody.

But in order to hear this orchestration of being, we have to be still and listen. The “still, small voice” talked about in the Bible is governing our everyday affairs. It requires obedience, receptivity, and flexibility to follow it.

Let me give you one example:

I was out doing some errands on my bike. I felt strongly impelled that I should only go to the first stop on my list. However, after the first stop I protested against this spiritual intuition with “human reason”. When would I get the other things done? Why shouldn’t I go? What is the reason? The human mind has a hard time with the “unknown”.

So I went to the next stop. When I got to this place, I discovered they didn’t have what I needed. The trip to this place was totally unnecessary. Part of God’s Principle of harmony is that nothing is in excess and nothing is deficient. There is just the right, needed amount of everything. Our days are ordered by this Principle so there is just the right amount of time needed to do everything. There isn’t too much time or too little time. When we governed by this divine Mind, everything in our day flows together perfectly.

However, my attempt at “human reasoning” to try to solve the problems of the day had really been a lack of trust or faith in God. I didn’t trust that the all-knowing, all-seeing Mind might know more about what was going on than I did.

I learned my lesson, and I am practicing listening to the still, small voice no matter what self-validation the human mind tries to pull.

This Principle of harmony tells us where to go, when to go, tells us what we should purchase, what we don’t need to purchase, shows us what we can give, and who we should call. This spiritual intuition gives us peace, stability, and health. And by listening and obeying it we are ready, we have the tools, for anything that might come into our day.

The quotes in this post are from the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy