Decide To Be Creative, Sunday Service. June 28, 2015

Today I decide to be creative! Inspiration is a function of the Spirit, so an inspired mind is a creative mind. The creative process is a 24-hours-a-day event. In me, God thinks. As me, God feels. I am an open channel for all spiritual ideas. My consciousness welcomes them and my subconscious acts upon them. And So it it.

Decide to be Creative

Are you creative? Recently i met a woman who has been collecting dolls for years. She has thousands of dolls in her home. She has dolls from every region of the world and made from various materials in every size and shape you could imagine. Many of dolls' faces were created in her own kiln. Their expressions were chosen by her. The clothing, jewelry and shoes were made by her. Nobody would deny that she is very creative! This picture is of part of her collection.

Photo by Linda Lyerly

Many people have an idea about creativity that is incorrect. They think that creativity can only be expressed through the arts. I know I used to think that because I couldn't draw things that even faintly resembled the thing I was drawing, I decided that I was not creative.

When I started studying the Science of Mind, I began to realize that we are  all creative beings. I began to understand that through our beliefs and passions we were creating our worlds. Creativity can take many forms. What we think about, comes about.

What is on your mind? That is the thing you are passionate about. If you are worried about something, you tend to visit that idea many times a day. You are actually creating the very thing that you fear. You are planting an idea. You are passionate about the idea.That idea must become your creation. It is not because God wants you to be unhappy; it is simply because you have been planting ideas of misfortune. You could start planting ideas of good fortune. You could fertilize it with gratitude.

What would it be like if you took the same time to prayerfully or passionately consider the good that is already in your life? What if you used your creative imagination to dwell upon uplifting ideas?

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote these words of wisdom:

"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."

Thinking about these things will create more of them in your life. You are creative right now! Choose something beautiful. You will have a collection like our hostess.

Decide to be Healthy

Do you believe that you have an inherent right to be healthy? You do! 

If people could just decide to be healthy, why would they decide to be sick?

Raymond Charles Barker writes:

"Often there is a weak conscious decision to be well, while at the same time there is a definite subconscious decision to be sick. The subconscious will always in out."

When I was teaching school, every year for at least twenty years, I would get sick twice a year -- the first  when winter vacation started and the other when summer vacation started. I was reluctant to let  anyone to see my sketchy lesson plans. I didn't relax until vacation. then all the bugs I had been resisting came to play.  I was miserable.

However, the thing to really consider, is what makes us sick? Is it really the viruses, germs and microbes hiding in dirty hands ending up in our guts or throats? Or is it something hidden in our consciousness? 

I now believe it is the latter. It starts with what we really believe. I now believe that we are surrounded by all sorts of things that could become a form of illness, but the real cause of anything visible, including our bodies, is the invisible power of Divine Mind acting through Its own Immaculate Law. In other words, we experience our beliefs. And as Barker stated in the earlier quotation, the subconscious will always win out. 

We may not be aware of all our beliefs, but we can become aware of their effects and sleuth out the hidden cause. 

Back to my teaching days, I had a strong belief that getting sick was going to be more work than staying well. I believed that my only rest occurred when I was sick. Voila, my false belief uncovered.

Health is your birthright. What is your decision?

Decide To Live Richly, Sunday Service, June 14, 2015

Today I decide to live richly! I make a decision to set free all present and future thoughts of lack and limitation. I expect only the finest and greatest in my life for I know that my heart's desires are my best assets. I realize that money is God in action, so I use it with integrity, ease and joy. I am ready to receive this Divine bounty. And so it is!

The Outworking of a Perfect Spiritual Law

The One Perceiving the Divine Bounty

"Why should you expect the greatest and the finest in your life? We exist in a Divine Bounty that awaits our taking, and the way of taking is a mental one that starts with desire, decision, and expectancy. No one is ever too young or too old to expect great things.No one is ever too rich or too poor to expect great things.If you are sick, expect to get well. If you are unhappy, expect to be happy. No power outside yourself is demanding that you be miserable."  The Power of  Decision by Raymond Charles Barker

I love Raymond Charles Barker's clear thinking and straight forward  discussions.What do you really expect in your life?

It is a good idea to check your expectations often. I remember a time in my life when if something happened like a collision, a cancelled appointment, a missed bus, I would say, "Well isn't this just perfect." Heavy sarcasm. It wasn't perfect. I used to say that there were accidents and things just happened. I would have been the kind of person who would read a book entitled, "Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?"  I would feel empathy for the person and say things like "It just isn't right."

Maybe you can relate. Yet things are not good or bad. They are simply the outworking of a perfect spiritual law from cause (Idea) to effect (experience.)

When we start studying the Spiritual Principles, we begin to realize that nothing ever happens to us, it happens through us. In other words, we subconsciously believed that things happened to us. We even thought that worrying was the truly the right thing to do, especially for mothers.We expected the other shoe to fall. We expected that tomorrow would be just about the same as today. And we were right! It was exactly what happened until we took charge of our thinking and used our mind for good.

What would happen if we simply realized how good life is? What if we just expected the best for ourselves, our friends and our families? 

When I was at the Lake Arrowhead conference, I  I was feeling so grateful for the Divine Bounty of the universe. A group of us were relaxing in the afternoon, enjoying each other's company and feeling blessed. This was the upward view from the Adirondack chairs. Nature does blue and green gloriously.

The Divine Bounty

Decide To Be Happy, Sunday Service

Today I decide to be happy. I know that happiness an joy are an inside job. This Spiritual Gift is already within me and the creative process of Mind moves into instant action upon my decision. Happiness and joy are my Divine inheritance and I accept it now. I place my attention on the attitudes, situations and people who add to my well-being. And so it is.

We Decide To Be Happy

The Power of Decision

In his  thought-provoking book, The Power of Decision, author Raymond Charles Barker writes:

"The individuals ability to act unintelligently in a universe of Intelligence is amazing. Unintelligence functioning in human consciousness produces wrong decisions, people limit themselves with sickness, financial strain, family quarrels, and frustration, all of which are unnecessary. The power to make right decisions are yours...a healthy mind will cease making erroneous decisions......The infinite Mind could not act unintelligently...Cause is never indecisive, never disturbed, and never defeated"

Since we are made in the image and likeness of this Cause, our minds were created as an instrument of Divine Mind. 

The unintelligent factors are worry, fear, hate, and resentment. We could include all negatives. God is undisturbed by our wrong decisions.

Because God does not take anything personally, a new, right thought will start a new train of causation.

Some people were brought up to believe that they needed to worry in order to be a good parent!

The opposite is really true. Worrying is wrong thinking and will actually magnetize what is feared into manifestation.

Wouldn't it be  better to think hopeful thoughts? positive thoughts? helpful thoughts?

Some people will say that just isn't realistic. But what is Reality? If reality is a Universal Mind that creates out of any impress made upon it, then positive thoughts are working in alignment with Reality. 

It may feel awkward. If may feel impractical to be affirming your intelligence when you seem to have evidence to the contrary.

I like Louise Hay's advice, 

"Say to yourself 300-400 times  a day, 'I approve of myself.'" 

When you establish a firm belief in your own self-acceptance, the possibilities are endless.

What I have recently noticed about myself is that it is very easy to choose anger instead of love. I found myself talking to a trusted friend about un-chosen changes in my life. I started feeling angry. How absurd! I am the creator of all my experiences -- whether planned or unplanned. From this moment on, I am deciding to think intelligently, lovingly and wisely. I approve of myself and give you room to approve of yourself too.