“He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.”
~ Raymond Hull
Friends, neighbors, co-workers, and strangers may have opinions about what you should do and look like, but none of it is significant compared to what you already are in God’s image.
Love yourself—your spiritual self. It can’t be improved upon. It’s perfect now!
Wow! A sharp reminder that we are not mortals serving mortality but reflections of God, the divine Mind. The mortal falsity certainly would be whittled away were it believed. Great find, thanks Evan. 🙂
This makes me also think about how much other things can encroach on our time too…how much we think we SHOULD do, be involved in, how many “events” we “should” go to, how much time we spend on unimportant or insignificant things, how much TV we watch, because we FEEL WE SHOULD do that thing.
If something is keeping us from doing what is really important to our growth or happiness, we need to be a bit selective and even pragmatic (without being unloving).
Reading your post today, Evan, I am reminded that a couple of weeks before my brother passed on, he said he has realised how much of his time he ALLOWED to be wasted doing things he didn ‘t really need to be involved in. He said he was going to unsubscribe from everything that distracted him from expanding his understanding of God.
I think this is something we should all do (especially me!) but not wait til its too late. This IS “loving yourself”.
The saying “Don’t SHOULD all over yourself “ is sooo true
I guess what I am trying to say is, let’s be careful not to allow our time ‘here’ to be “whittled away” unproductively…if we really want to read that massive “Mary Baker Eddy , Christian Healer ” book…do it now instead of maybe going out or being disracted by stuff that will not add to your spiritual awareness.
?
Yes indeed – “to your own SPIRITUAL self be true”!
Yes, thank you so much Evan – our self, our real spiritual self is already perfect in God.
And to love our spiritual self enables us to love our neighbor as oneself aright – thats a healing and blessing Love!.
Very happy Easter with lots of sunshine outside and in all hearts! 🙂
Thanks Evan and Fay, Diane, Annepat and Uta! Perfect reminder and wonderful thoughts.
Truth and Love gently guide/lead. Mortal opinions do not matter.
“The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity.”
SH vii:13-15
“Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way.”
SH 454:18-19
Great message! Thanks! As the Greek saying goes, to then own self be true.”
There is so much pressure to do things a certain way. If you don’t meet someone else’s opinion of how you should be, or how you should do things, you are excluded. Of course that attitude isn’t Christ-like!
The best remedy is to continue focusing on your own spiritual growth. Know your perfection. Work to further your spiritual growth, affirming your own – and others’ – spiritual identities. And, listen for God’s guidance. Sometimes it’s right to stay and keep working, and sometimes it’s right to let go and move on.
What a beautiful “resurrection” reminder! Thank you so much, Evan.
Let us sing of Easter Gladness that rejoices every day! Spiritualization of thought or Resurrection going on each day!
Dear Evan and loving group. Today I write to wish you all very happy Easter. It is a beautiful date to reflect and deepen our study of Truth and above all Gratitude, much Gratitude.
Hello BRIAN if you are here today:
Last Wednesday, the 28th, you asked a couple of questions in regard to Jesus crucifixion namely about “Joseph” and “burial details.”
In the March 26th Sentinel, in the Bible Lens page iii (Section 5, citation 13) it has a excellent response to your questions. (=
Dear Evan, thank you for the wise words today.
Thank you Rhonda! I happened to read the Bible Lens last night and did find it helpful. But “Thanks” for pointing me to it!
FYI…I also did a web search to better understand Israelite burial customs. I find it is often helpful in understanding the Bible to understand the customs and thinking of the people at the time the events in the Bible occurred. So that was my purpose in doing this searching.
The link below kind of sums up what I found. Not all of the information in the link below is consistent with the ideas of Christian Science, but it does give a good summary of how Israelites thought about burial.
http://www.holytextures.com/2011/04/israelite-burial-customs.html
I also found other information that indicated the WORST thing that could happen to an Israelite was to not get buried properly. Here again it points to the love expressed by Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a Pharisee and Jewish elder, to show compassion to Jesus with whom most Pharisees were hostile.
The importance Israelites placed on a proper burial was summed up in the following few sentences I found on another web page:
One can measure the importance that Israelites attached to burial by the frequency with which the Bible refers to the fear of being left unburied. Thus, one of the curses for breach of the covenant is: “Thy carcasses shall be food unto all fowls of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth” (Deut. 28:26).
This again makes me think that the proper burial of Jesus was most important to the people left still dwelling in the belief of matter instead of being important to Jesus and his ability to arise from death.
Thanks Evan for the SpiritView today…and every day…and to everyone for your comments. Sorry to go off topic, but I wanted to respond to Rhonda for being so kind to help answer my questions from Wed.
Thank you Brian for the link – very interesting for cultural background.
Brian, thank you for sharing the information you found too. (=
This blog hit home with me as I have a relative that keeps saying I should do something with my hair. She goes to a hairdresser regularly. I keep my hair clean and neat, but have better uses for my limited funds. I’ve even had compliments on my beautiful hair!
I appreciate the comments with information about the importance of a proper burial. One question that came up today during a Bible lesson discussion was the significance of ashes on Ash Wednesday, since Jesus wasn’t cremated. One explanation was it was to remind us that came from ashes and would return to ashes. It’s rather late in the day, but does anyone have any ideas to share on this?
I read that a cross of ashes representing repentance is made on the forehead of each of the congregation, if that helps.
Thanks, MB. Yes that does help.