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Gentle Healing Lesson 126, Manual for Teachers, Text.  4-16-19

LESSON 126
All that I give is given to myself.

2 Let us consider what you do believe, in place of this idea. It seems to you that other people are apart from you, and able to behave in ways which have no bearing on your thoughts, nor theirs on yours. Therefore, your attitudes have no effect on them, and their appeals for help are not in any way related to your own. You further think that they can sin without affecting your perception of yourself, while you can judge their sin, and yet remain apart from condemnation and at peace.

I completely understand this and I no longer believe it and I almost never live it. When I first began to understand that all I give is given to myself, I became aware of how I treat people who serve me. For instance, I used to try on clothes in the store and leave them in the room when I was through, sometimes scattered about on the floor.

I probably figured that picking up after me was her job if I thought about it at all. I did not value her as a child of God. Because I did not see her value, and I was giving myself the same thing, lack of value. If I did not recognize my value would I be likely to believe that I deserved forgiveness and love? I can tell you that I did not. The less value I placed in myself, the less I valued others. It was a vicious cycle and the way the ego maintains its existence.

In becoming aware of this careless behavior and the deeper meaning it has, the far reach of its effects, I changed the way I interacted with people. I paid them more attention. I look the clerk who serves me in the eye when I sincerely wish them a good day. I recognize their innate value. I try to remember to treat each person as if it is Jesus serving me because their value is the same as his value.

I am not perfect at seeing the value in everyone, and when I am paying attention to my own chattering mind, I forget. But the cycle has been broken for me, and so I generally remember and when I forget, I quickly realize my error and if it is too late for in-person correction, I give my blessing in my mind, at least.

This practice now includes all areas of my life, all my brothers and sisters. If I am impatient with someone for being slow to understand what I am saying, or to incorporate new ideas, then impatience is what I give myself. It is another way of failing to value the other and thus to fail to value myself. The Holy Spirit is patient with me, and I want to give as He gives. If I notice that I am impatient, I silently ask for correction and for another way to express the idea.

All that I give is given to myself. The Help I need to learn that this is true is with me now. And I will trust in Him.

Then spend a quiet moment, opening your mind to His correction and His Love. And what you hear of Him you will believe, for what He gives will be received by you.

This part of the lesson is of particular interest to me. It is a continuation of the practice of sitting in quiet and asking for His Word. This morning, I asked that He bring to my attention anything in my behavior that indicates I am giving what I would prefer not to receive. I also asked that He heal my mind of the beliefs that are the cause of such behavior. Then I listened. And then, I received.

Regina’s Tips

Well, the day I came to understand the concept of ‘giving and receiving as one’, I understood forgiveness, and I became a very eager practitioner of forgiveness.

I learned ‘giving and receiving are one’ from scribing NTI Ephesians. It was further emphasized in ‘the Code.’ It is summarized by this:

What I think, I see.
What I see, I experience.
What I experience, I think.

How do you feel when you judge a person or situation? How do you feel when you reject a person or a situation? How do you feel when you genuinely accept what is? How do you feel when you love what is? Can you see that you directly experience your own decision to judge, reject, accept or love? Can you see that it is never different; you always experience your own decision?

Giving and receiving are one. Therefore, to have peace, be peace. To know love, be love. And to do that, let go of any thought that does not make you happy. Just let it go. That is forgiveness.

My Thoughts
I love the way Regina can express things in a way that makes them instantly understandable. I am especially drawn to the idea that to have peace, be peace and to have love, be love. I do this by letting go of thoughts that do not make me happy. See. It is simple. This is forgiveness. If I forgive myself and I am happy, then I will treat everyone in such a way as to encourage the same thing in them.

Manual for Teachers
“Remember how many times you thought you knew all the “facts” you needed for judgment, and how wrong you were!”

I really get this. I agree that I don’t have all the facts, not ever, and so I have no way to judge accurately anything. I accept that I do have the Holy Spirit right here in my mind and He does know everything and will judge for me. I have had that experience and often. I know how to become still and let Him remove what is not true from my mind. I know how to relinquish my own judgments and surrender to Him. I do it a lot.

I would say at this point in my life, judgment is just a bad habit, and one I am working to break. I am asking the Holy Spirit to help me be aware of any judgmental thoughts in my mind today. I ask that He show me judgment in whatever forms it might take. I know that sometimes I judge myself more harshly than I ever would anyone else. I know that sometimes judgment sounds like an attack thought, and sometimes it sounds like fear.

I want to be aware of these judgments so that I can allow them to be removed and I can be free of them. This produces an emptiness into which the Holy Spirit can reveal the truth. Since I am having to ask for this help even in being aware of the desire to judge, I suspect that in addition to habitual thinking that there must be some belief left in my mind that judging is a valuable right that I don’t want to give up. Holy Spirit, please remove that belief from my mind. It doesn’t even make sense.

Text
“Any attempt to deny what is must be fearful, and if the attempt is strong it will induce panic. ...You are devoting your mind to what you do not want.” 9. I. 12

Jesus says that to deny what is must be fearful. When I deny what I am, I deny what is. I was reading from the Daily Lessons the section called “What am I?” This is a beautiful section and I am going to read it frequently now because I believe it most of the time and I want to believe it all of the time. Among other things, it says that we are the holy messengers of God who speak for Him, and carrying it to everyone whom He has sent to us, we learn that it is written on our hearts.

When I feel afraid or sick, when I am in pain, or angry, when I succumb to guilt and doubt, I deny what is. When I treat anyone badly, I am not being messenger for God and thus I am not learning what is written on my heart. I deny both of us the truth that brings us to the awareness of Heaven. This includes the clerk at the store, the fellow shopper who is blocking the aisle, the driver who won’t use her turn signal.

In this world of separation with its levels and its orders of difficulty, it seems like some errors are big or important and other things hardly matter. But that is not so. It is the same error that I feel anger and resentment toward a friend, as it is that I was impatient with the store clerk who was moving slowly and talking to a fellow clerk while I was running late. They are the same thing because the only thing is happening is that I am either devoted to God or to ego, devoted to what is, or devoted to nothing.

My function is to remember my true devotion, to be a messenger of God, teaching love, teaching everyone what they are, and so learning what I am. And when I forget, when I get caught up in the illusion, my function is to forgive myself as soon as I notice that I am devoting myself to nothing. When I think of this, I get excited! Today is not just another day. It is a day of remembering and a day of teaching. Today I am God’s messenger.

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