“Who can escape this self-condemnation? Only through God’s Word could this be possible. For self-condemnation is a decision about identity, and no one doubts what he believes he is. He can doubt all things, but never this. (M-13.3)”
Affirmation: “I would foster self-acceptance.”
Reflections:
1 – Acceptance
We condemn ourselves when we fail to understand that God’s Word would give us freedom. It is perhaps a paradox that we don’t understand, and it is born of the separation that only apparently happened. The separation never actually happened in fact, but only in illusion, in the dreams in which we are caught. And we condemn ourselves for supposedly rejecting God. We recognize, however dimly, that it is our acceptance of God and His blessings that we are ever truly at peace and happy, joyous.
2 – Reject God?
We think that we have rejected our Maker, and to prove this rejection, we don’t communicate with Him. We pray only when in dire straits, the foxhole prayers. This is, as Jesus says in A Course in Miracles, a most unnatural habit that we have taught ourselves. We are meant to commune with our Maker, and it is God who made us, not we ourselves. We tend to forget this when we are being especially egotistical, and therefore especially caught by the ego. But we can learn a better means of living. We can return to frequent communion with God and His Voice, the Holy Spirit, and as soon as we make the choice for this return, we will immediately, sooner rather than later, feel better. Our lives will immediately smooth out, and we will feel love again. We will reach out easily to our brothers and sisters, and we will accept ourselves as having made mistakes, but none that cannot be forgiven. Note that God does not forgive (an ACIM tenet), because he has never condemned. It is only with self-condemnation that we are concerned in today’s passage.
3 – Gentleness
Be kind to yourself today. We need the strength of gentleness, for it is only with gentleness that ACIM becomes easy to accept, salvation become easy to experience. Be rid of the insanity of self-condemnation, and all will be well again in our little worlds.
Prayer:
Dear Father/Mother,
I would stay close to You today. I am certain that when days go awry, it is because I have not been close enough to You. Perhaps my sense of guilt, because of the ego, has come alive, and so I think that I am not worthy. But I am Your child, and You do love me. I have ample evidence of this love in the blessings of my life. And even if those blessings were withheld, I would know that You are there for me, carrying me. Thank You for this parable of the way things really are, retold by Hugh Prather.
I would commune today with You, even when my mind is on other things. You do not expect conscious constant contact. You know that we have busy minds (perhaps too busy), and that we have many things that we have to do in this world. May we think of You just a little more often, and in the thinking may we understand that it is You Who created us, not we ourselves.
I know that I will feel better today if I follow these goals. Be with me when I forget. I may forget You, but please, don’t You forget me.
Amen.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 