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Peace and Joy I Offer You

Water Lillies

We cannot find peace if we continue to remember and replay hurtful events from the past.  Are you happy being stuck on automatic thinking about an old event?  Are you replaying blame, pain and guilt?  Was it their fault or yours?  If it was your fault  you  feel guilty.  If it was theirs, you feel victimized.  Neither are happy making!

What part of your mind is doing the replaying?   Ask Yourself: Do I want peace and joy rather than guilt or victimhood?

If the answer is YES, then decided to STOP replaying the past!

HOW?  It is up to you……yes YOU!  You are doing the replaying yourself!

You could choose to look at it another way.

Say:  “OK – I’ll look at this another way for the sake of my own peace.”

Begin to think of the people involved (or the situation) and realize that you are denying them peace and joy  (that is their right under the equal laws of God) AND you are ALSO denying peace and joy to yourself.

WOW:  If you hold a grievance against someone….it is held in your MIND!  You are trapped in the grievance with them.  Are you happy? You are trapping your light and joy!

Think of the people involved a little while and tell them in your mind:

* “My brother/sister/:  peace and joy I offer you,

That I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.”  

We don’t think that just because we have denied peace and joy to someone that we are in effect really denying peace to our Self.  If you hold hate or a grudge in your mind, you are the one doing the HOLDING, so you are the effect of your own suffering!   Do you like how you feel?

Do you think your brother is suffering?  We don’t know but we know you are.

Would you rather say to that brother?

My brother/sister/myself: misery and suffering I offer you

That  I may have the ego’s misery and suffering as mine.

Which version do you choose?  If the word God bothers you, take it out.  God won’t care.  That mystery which is love, never condemns.  It doesn’t know how to.  Make a copy of the pledge and paste it around the house.  Take yourself on as a student and train yourself to accept that peace and joy is your inheritance and that you are worth it.

* The quote is from A Course In Miracles, Workbook lesson 105 God’s Peace and Joy are Mine.  Visit  www.acim.org  go The Workbook lessons and then click the lesson selector. You can also click “hear” and listen to the entire lesson and close your eyes.   Choose peace!

Hint: When you give you also receive!

My salvation comes from me!

My salvation comes from me.

A Course In Miracles, Workbook Lesson 70

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Salvation seems to come from anywhere except from you. So too does the source of guilt. You see neither guilt nor salvation as being in your own mind. When you realize that all guilt is solely an invention of your mind, you also realize that guilt and salvation must be in the same place.

Read lesson 70 frequently and remember salvation comes from YOU. The decision maker, the part of your mind that decides to listen to the ego or the Holy Spirit is WHO you are. You are a decision making Mind. Guilt comes from the decision maker choosing and listening to the ego. Guilt is an invention in the mind. It is a lie. You have done nothing wrong but the ego would keep you trapped in the world by making sure you are miserable at all times! Don’t listen to it.

Don’t believe the *guilt, don’t believe that the body is your total identity and don’t believe your thoughts of fear or pain. When you do, you are deciding to be a body and being led by the false self, the ego.

We fear God and think he will take something back from us. Loss is a big factor of the world. This is a place of loss. Death seems to be the greatest loss but it is not real either.
You are Love, how could you lose that? Ego says we lost love. It lies! Gently and without fear, look at the hate that is denied and repressed. In looking it is forgiven – and it is gone because it is “seen.” You have brought it to the light.

Hate is a defense against guilt, (when we hate something we feel guilty )

and guilt is a defense against Love. (feeling guilty we never feel love, lovable or loved)

You are saved by your decision making mind. That is why salvation comes from you. The body can give you pleasure or pain and both only make the body and the ego seem real.

“Few appreciate the real power of the mind, and no one remains fully aware of it all the time. However, if you hope to spare yourself from fear there are some things you must realize and realize fully. The mind is very powerful, and never loses its creative force. It never sleeps. Every instant it is creating. It is hard to recognize that thoughts and belief combine into a power surge that can literally move mountains. It appears at first glance that to believe such power about yourself is arrogant, but that is not the real reason you do not believe it. You prefer to believe that your thoughts cannot exert real influence because you are actually afraid of them. This may allay awareness of the guilt, but at the cost of perceiving the mind as impotent. If you believe that what you think is ineffectual you may cease to be afraid of it, but you are hardly likely to respect it. There ARE no idle thoughts. All thinking produces form at some level.” T 2. VI 9. 3 – 13

Yes, you have a body and it is neutral. Yes, take care of it, keep it healty but it is not YOU. All problems are the same. Bring the problems to the decision making mind. Our belief in the problem is the problem. Embrace both the victim and victimizer, we are all one and we are the same.

We do not think we are a Son of God, but it is impossible to be separated from Source. Look at the guilt and wait; look at the hate and wait some more, be patient, don’t judge the ego. Just look. Looking is forgiveness. Look and it will disappear. We cling to our ego and disaster stories but they do not identify you.

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See the post: Guilt is in the mind, But it is not True!