Better expectations, better Halloween

Do you have your Halloween pumpkin carved yet?

We carved a pumpkin a few weeks ago when our granddaughter was here. Always aiming to carve a happy face.

Happiness on a pumpkin shows me that superficial happiness is something less than the power I give it.

Example:

Eating chocolate makes me happy. But not really. Knowing this fact allows me to improve my expectations. Instead of expecting chocolate to give me happiness, I can expect truth and love to come with happiness. I can expect honesty and a willingness to try something new to come with happiness. Maybe eating an apple is good.

Quoting from science & religion to God:

“How we interpret life affects not only our outlook and expectations, but also the consequences.”

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Moving an Alzheimer’s patient

Instead of trying really hard to heal spiritually, I’ve learned to stop myself. I’ve decided that If God is healing, then God is healing all the time. Nonstop. I don’t make healing happen. I don’t need to look for something to heal.

Instead of praying for healing, I pray to see God healing. It is right in front of me, part of my experience.

As the cloud’s shadow passes over me when out in the woods walking, or as an idea enlightens my thought, healing results.

Months ago, I’d planned to help husband/wife friends move from Arizona to Washington State. The husband has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and was in a wheelchair. The wife told me, “Cheryl, he responds to you without confusion.”

The morning before I needed to fly to Arizona, I got sick. Food would not stay down. My husband told me, “This healing is here because you are the one for the job.”

We were staying at my husband’s sister’s house and she nursed me with mother love. By that afternoon, an hour before my scheduled flight, I was well enough to pack. My brother-in-law took me to the airport early and we both agreed that if I felt I should cancel my traveling that he’d return to pick me up at the airport and take me back to their house for rest. “I don’t mind one bit,” he said. His trust in God, through his Latter Day Saints faith, held a purity I could feel.

Healing continued and I traveled to Arizona. The husband and wife were ready and waiting to travel and move to Washington. The flight went without a flaw.

I was grateful that the husband did respond to me. Though the airports were hectic and loud, he was calm and hopeful.

I pondered “spiritual Alzheimer’s,” living in the past with confidence, yet easily angered when asked to do more than what the limited perspective expects.

Then I read from Matthew 4:1, 8-10:

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ² And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry…[Then[ the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. ⁹ And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” ¹⁰ Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’”

Though I believe that in spiritual reality there is no devil, there is a devil to contend with humanly. The devil of Alzheimer’s will be cast out and until then we can prove it step by step. The devil was rebuked during our travels and we did worship God, Love, resulting in a gracious experience. We hope to continue.

June 18, 2014

I Kings 10:1-9 (NIV)*

When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relationship to the Lord, she came to test Solomon with hard questions. ² Arriving at Jerusalem with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all that she had on her mind. ³ Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for the king to explain to her. ⁴ When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, ⁵ the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed.

⁶ She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. ⁷ But I did not believe these things until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half was told me; in wisdom and wealth you have far exceeded the report I heard. ⁸ How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! ⁹ Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the Lord’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king to maintain justice and righteousness.”

Prov. 15:12-13

Mockers resent correction,
so they avoid the wise.

¹³ A happy heart makes the face cheerful,
but heartache crushes the spirit.

¹⁴ The discerning heart seeks knowledge,

Matt. 5: 1-11

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them.

He said:

³ “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
⁴ Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
⁵ Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
⁶ Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
⁸ Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
⁹ Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
¹⁰ Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

¹¹ “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. ¹² Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

From 21^st Century Science and Health*

Love is the source of might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud. God’s ideas are simple, yet great, and through a sharing process these ideas are strengthened, and found to be interconnected, as they have the same Principle, or Parent. Happy is the person who sees the need of others and supplies it, seeking his or her own supply in someone else’s good. All the diverse expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality—infinite Life, Truth, and Love.

Human belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving power. It says to human beings, “You are disgusting!” and they think they are. Nothing can change this state, until the mindset changes. Mortal belief says, “You are happy!” and human beings are; and no circumstance can alter the situation, until the thinking on this subject changes. Human belief says to mortals, “You are sick!” and this assertion manifests itself on the body as sickness. A change in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the physical condition. Bear in mind, it is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into the spiritual understanding of what constitutes health.

Evil is conspicuously broadcast today, showing off itself in consumerism, materialism, and sensualism. Evil is struggling against the advancing spiritual era. The world may lack spirituality, and people may not be able to keep a promise or make a home happy, but human minds are demanding spiritual understanding and a reformed attitude.

As with any reform, a transition period will be felt. Transition periods are often unsettling and undesirable, however, why buck the trend when the reform compels us to find permanence and peace in a more spiritual devotion?

In his book, Survival in the Killing Fields,[1] Haing Ngor, survivor of the Khmer Rouge regime, acknowledges the special trust between he and his wife, which did not include quibbling. Hard feelings are avoided when spouses use common sense, have respect for one another, and do not become extravagant or lazy. Having money and possessions may remove some barriers to a happy marriage, but nothing can replace the loving care in a union.

Teaching children, at the earliest stages possible, the realities of health and holiness is extremely beneficial. Children are more tractable than adults, and learn more readily to love the simple truths that will make them happy and good. Children can learn that obedience to parents and guardians promotes self-control. Disobedience blights.

Truth’s immortal idea is hovering over the centuries, gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. My weary hope tries to realize that happy day when human beings will recognize the Science of Christ, Truth, and love their neighbor as themselves. I hope you realize God’s omnipotence and the healing power of divine Love, and what it does for humankind. The promises will be fulfilled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing is throughout all time.

* Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com Text from 21^st Century Science and Health, copyrighted by Cheryl Petersen.

 

 

[1] Haing Ngor, with Roger Warner, Survival in the Killing Fields. (New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003)

In the Wilderness

Moses led the children of Israel away from Pharaoh, so they no longer had to be  slaves. They escaped into a wilderness and were probably feeling pretty fine, if not totally amazed and exhausted.

Freedom at last. But, they didn’t have the attention to recognize the opportunities at hand. They were impatient, bored, and had big expectations. The expectations however veered from their initial intent to worship God, and therefore became unreasonable. Unmet. So, they complained. And, they blamed Moses.  (Exodus 16)

I think, it is impossible to maintain a human status-quo. Try as people may, no human condition remains the same. And, instead of complaining or blaming, it is better to get through the wilderness experience by dis-attaching more fully from the human status-quo.

Moses was geared up to learn more about God. The people however were more interested in food and water; not a move atypical to human beings. So Moses prayed for God to provide manna from the sky and water from the rock. God provided.

Surely these miracles impressed the children of Israel, but not for long, because they kept complaining and then, when Moses was up in the Mountain, they constructed a golden calf to worship.

I catch myself complaining and I ask myself: Are my expectations reasonable or unreasonable? Am I trying to bring the past into the future? Am I worshiping a material object, human person, or mortal way of life? Am I worshiping a delusive mortal picture? Am I pretending to be following a great leader yet destroying or working against their every forward movement? How can I stop complaining or blaming, because it makes me look ridiculous?

I think I’ll take a look at Caleb and Joshua next.

Spiritual Gratitude as Related to Everyday

Gratitude may be an absolute necessity when it comes to spiritual progress; however, gratitude is not absolute as related to everyday experiences. The tabloid version of gratitude―being thankful for health, friends, and nice things―drudges up the question, Are the people who lack in health, friends, and “stuff” not grateful?

Years ago, I was at a meeting where people were “being grateful.” A lady, who has a high-profile, high-paying job, spoke up and sincerely declared her thankfulness for the rain we’d just had (we lived in a desert). The rain gave her a reprieve from physically watering her plants and flowers in her backyard with a hose.

I said nothing. I sat in my own silence.

I live 4 miles up the road from this grateful lady and had just spent 3 days and night, with my husband, in our orchard, trying to save our cherry crop from rain damage. We failed. That crop was to pay our next year’s bills.

I was not grateful for the rain. I was tired and sad, but somewhere, somehow, I still knew gratitude. It was in the cosmos of divine knowledge.

“The Science of spirituality comes with tool in hand to separate the chaff from the wheat.” (21^st Century Science and Health)

Chaff

• gratitude is triggered by some human event or thing
• thinking humans should be grateful for the same object
• assuming gratitude for a mortal thing is absolute

Wheat

• Consciousness, gratitude, and spirituality are inextricably bound together―prolific and identifiable as us

Einstein’s theory of relativity points to the fact that life goes on despite the comparativeness of time and space. Gratitude goes on despite the comparativeness of human health, friends, and things. Gratitude can’t be warped by relativity. Appreciation can’t be diminished by an absolutist. Gratitude is spiritual, shared, and coexists with us.

Another way to look at gratitude: Spiritual gratitude is not being grateful for “time” but for ever-abiding now.