“Giving and receiving are one in truth.
“By saying that giving and receiving are one in truth it is being said that you are lacking only in what you do not give. The belief in lack is a temp¬tation of the human experience. This will relate to all situations in which you feel you have something to gain from some “other.” Again, this will be related to old patterns of dissatisfaction with the self.” (ACOL, T3:16.9 – 16.10)
Before reading A Course of Love, we probably never gave any thought that dissatisfaction with the self would be involved with the idea of lack and trying to gain something from another. But if we aren’t dissatisfied with ourselves, we know that we are complete as we are, that we have no need to gain from another unless we are also giving to that other brother or sister as well. And giving and receiving are one. In physical bodies, we must see that we reach out, and then something is reciprocated—and the reverse, someone gives us something, and we respond.
Since we are all One, this dynamic makes sense only when we think of our relationships with others. This is “unity and relationship” in action. Our Self, One with all, nevertheless gives and receives in our physical world, because we are discrete entities occupying separate bodies.
Let us not be dissatisfied with ourselves any longer. We do all have flaws, but we can change these things just by asking the Almighty to clean us up. We do not have to reach to an “ideal” self to know that we are alright just as we are, that we need only to be who we are in interactions with others.
This will allow a genuineness in our relationships that is like nothing else. Others will want to flock around us, not for what we can give them, but purely to be in our company.
Unless the ego rises up again, we have nothing to fear from recognizing this dynamic. And we have some say in whether or not we fall into egotistical thinking once again.
Prayer
So often I wonder how I might be a better person. But this is not the right tack, according to A Course of Love. I would be reaching for an “ideal” self, and this would be an idol. So help me to know that flaws can fall away, actually, just by wishing them away. That simple, and that profound.
Be with me on this day, a day filled with possibility and blessings. May I know that the urges that I feel about what to do and say need to be coming from You, or I will guide my actions wrongly. Get through to me, please.
Thank You.
Amen.
MIRACLES EACH DAY 
Hey, I’d like to nominate you for the Lieber Award. I hope you’ll accept. https://fruitoffreedom.wordpress.com/2016/08/31/liebster-award/
Ha. I read that as ‘Guinness.in Our Relationship. Could work I suppose.
Thanks for another nice post.
So often through ACIM and ACOL I’ve reflected on “To give and receive are one in truth.” It is cause and effect, brought to our lives, our mind. All that I will ever receive is based on what I am will-ing to give. At the basest level, whether I’m giving love or fear, I will then perceive through the thought I have, the expression, and that experience, It couldn’t be any other way, could it?
I appreciate your identifying this paragraph, stating the converse of this point (“what you do not give”) . Thanks.
To raise the stakes, I suspect that even cause and effect are one. All distinctions would have to go.
Peter —
Yes! You are anticipating A Course of Love, which does say that cause and effect are one!
Celia
I’ve not got to ACOL yet Celia, but I’m not surprised to hear this. Legend has it that the Holy Grail has the power to dissolve all distinctions and this one must be amongst them.
I find it hard to believe that these two books have been written, so much do they say with such rigour about such difficult subjects, and with such clarity and confidence. It’s almost as if….