Do you realize how many agreements you make each day? And the consequences of those agreements!
For instance you may have agreed to work for an employer which requires you to arrive at their office at 8 AM each morning. This agreement governs the whole cycle of your day and night in the form of planning to fulfill that agreement. It affects your mental and physical activity. It has a large impact on your life experience.
Maybe you’ve agreed with your spouse to raise children. That decision has major life-changing consequences!
Then there are the more subtle agreements, the kind that happen inside, but have major outer effect.
For instance, perhaps your best friend is having a down day, and you mentally agree that life is very hard for them and you start to feel down. You’re not feeling down because you have to, but because you chose to. You agreed with their depressed outlook and it became your outlook.
Of maybe the physical mind is registering some type of pain or symptom of illness on your body, and you agree that the symptom is real. And then you start to feel more ill because you agreed with that suggestion and allowed it to become truth to you.
Thoughts, suggestions, beliefs, opinions come flying at us from all directions all day long, and with each instance, we make a choice to either agree or disagree. It’s wise to pay close attention to the agreements we make to be sure we aren’t making any agreements with evil and then living them out.
If the implication is evil, disagree! You are a free moral agent to reject any suggestion that is not in your best interest to serve. With spiritual truth and love, you can put evil down and defeat it from having any effect on your mind or body.
God is good. God is all-power. The might of Truth can triumph over any evil. When you side with God, you side with the might of Good and are able to demonstrate its presence more successfully.
You are making agreements all day long, outer ones and inner ones. When they are agreements with the goodness of God the consequences will always be in your best interest.
Agree with the good and not to one iota less.
So true. So true. Thank you
A perfect message for a Monday morning ☺ thank you
This subtlety is such a easy one to miss in our lives, nicely expressed, Evan.
Thanks, Evan! Standing Porter……!!! Until/unless one knows what is trying to influence one’s thought, one is kind of in a fog of sorts, having no idea what is going on. I think Mrs. Eddy speaks to this when she talks about mortals not even knowing what is having an effect on their thought, just accepting it as their own thinking. We can all Watch!
Very timely to keep us aware of the many challenges we face daily. It is important that we remain alert and keeping the goodness of God.
Thank you Evan! This morning the idea hit me to do a better job of agreeing with Love. It’s easy to let thought dwell on what is best for ME and trying to get things to make ME happy. But what is real and what will make us happy is often the opposite of what would be considered “logical” humanly. So this morning I started thinking about when I’ve been the happiest and when I’ve seen other people the happiest and I decided it’s when we are the busiest loving others. For example, a mother may have a million tasks to keep up with trying to raise children, and may sometimes tell you that they are stressed out as a result, but later in life when they reflect on those times they would probably conclude those were the times when they were the most happy because their life was devoted to loving their children. So today I’m going to starting looking harder for opportunities to love other people. And even when I’m by myself, I’m going to hold love in my thought for others (Syrian refugees, people that may be alone at Christmas, etc.) and know that nobody can ever be separated from God, Love!
How grateful I am for your Love and insight, Evan. You bless us all daily with your expressed Wisdom. I find it so helpful.
Thanks, Evan, for these insightful thoughts. I have an excerpt from an article “Stress is not inevitable” by Barbara Vining (Monitor 10/15) in which she states, “…human circumstances in and of themselves cannot cause stress. It’s what we consent to as having authority over our thinking – be it God or human circumstances – that determines our mental poise or lack of it, as well as the actual outcome of the circumstances. You and I have the ability and authority to reject the belief that our thinking can be determined by our circumstances – and we can refuse to allow it.” As Mrs. Eddy says “Stand porter at the door of thought.” God, not human circumstances, determines our state of being.
Yes of course if we agree with good alone, we side with God and allow only the influence of good – God in our life. Doing this, not only brings joy to us but even elevates everyone around us and enlightens and gladdens their life too. Thanks Evan ever so much.