The Trouble with Hate

Dr. Kenn Gordon wrote a great message today about peace and unrest. He said, "It is not what we hate that is the issue, the issue is that we hate at all."

That brings to mind, my favorite quote from The Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes:

My Identity: Who Am I?

And it is a law that the man who sees what he wants to see, regardless of what appears, will someday experience in the outer what he has so faithfully seen in the within.  From selfish reasons alone, if from no loftier reason, we cannot afford to find fault, to hate, or even to hold in mind anything against any living soul! The God of love cannot hear the prayer of the one who fails to love."

I remember before I had taken any Science of Mind or personal development courses, I used to routinely make statements about things I hated-- the weather, those people, shoveling snow, scraping the ice off my windshield, bigots, and any other condition or belief which I had judged as inferior or bad or unlovely. 

The truth that I came to know is that the Divine Mind is everywhere present and is always responsive to what is impressed upon it. I started re-framing my statements. I had a great coach who would remind me that we didn't hate anything!  I started saying (and eventually believing) that I would prefer gentle weather or that all weather is good. I would start seeing people as doing the best that they could and eventually to see their loveliness and uniqueness as individualized expressions of the Divine.

What I didn't know at the beginning of my studies are the benefits I was withholding from myself by thinking such thoughts as "hate" about anything. The "God of love" could not answer my prayers for greater good because It needs to correspond to the person praying. God is the antithesis of hate. It could not give of Itself because I had not renewed my mind.

In Romans 12:2, the apostle Paul wrote,

"And be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is good and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

When I  renew my mind, I simply remind myself of the nature of God. I remind myself that this limitless, eternal love created me and everyone else in ITS likeness so that God's beauty, peace, and truth could be manifest.