Today's Stimuli

December 13, 2014

DOING THE WORK
GETTING CLEAR
  
It can be difficult to get clear about what you do want until you clear out what you don't want. Unfortunately, we can become so focused on what we don't want that we obscure what we truly desire. This week our work is about getting clear. 
       


      



CALLING IN 
THE GOOD
  
 

Using a sheet of lined paper complete the following statement 9 times. 

  

I don't want:


 

1._________________________

2._________________________

3._________________________

4._________________________

5._________________________

6._________________________

7._________________________

8._________________________

9._________________________


 

  

Instead I choose:


 

1._________________________

2._________________________

3._________________________

4._________________________

5._________________________

6._________________________

7._________________________

8._________________________

9._________________________




   


The best way to find yourself 
is to lose yourself in 

the service
of others.


 

Mahatma Gandhi 


 

Service is the price we pay in exchange for the gift of life we have received from God.  It is our offering to God and to God's people.


 

We commit to living a life of service by giving of our spiritual gifts and talents without expectation of recognition or reward.  When we give of ourselves from the depths of our being, it becomes an act of love. 


 

Thus, what we give is offered from a loving, joyful and humble heart, rather than from an inflated ego.  We act from a place of exalting God only, rather than edging God out.


 

  
 
 

YOU ARE LOVE     

  

"Love, which created me, is what I am." ACIM Workbook Lesson #229

 

Precious Lord of the universe, I know You to be perfect love.

 

The love that You are is beyond measure; it is eternal and never fails. The love that You are is so much more than I can fully understand in my humanness.

 

The love that You are is fierce - this love doesn't know failure or hopelessness. It sees beyond pain and difficulty. It has no knowledge of fear.

 

A spark of this love is within me. You planted it there. It is the essence of me. No matter what mischief I may create or corner I may paint myself into, this love abides in me. It marks me as Your own.

 

Today, I am choosing to focus on this love. I call forth its fierceness and know that there is always hope no matter what the situation. I look to the spark within me to guide me today. I choose to be loving to myself and to those I encounter today. I dismiss fearful thoughts and doubt. I affirm that I am marked as Your own and love is what I am.

 

Let it be so. And so it is.

 

Rev. Terrie Bowling

   

 

I am blessed as I dedicate my life to

being in service. I know I am connected

to others, and as I give, I too receive.

 

 

Every day in every way, I express 

 gratitude for my life

 through servce.

 

I call forth the Wisdom of the Universe

to guide me to the perfect places and

the right people so that I serve with

compassion and love.  

 

I am joyful in my service to others.

 

 

I now dedicate my life

 to God and humanity in order

to fulfull my perpose on the planet.

 

 

I am the hands, the feet and the mouth

piece through which Gods works.

 

I am a servent of Divine Love.

I am successful as I support and

help others.

 

 

  
  
                              

Service is the ability to give of self (for example, time, knowledge, resources) without an attachment to the expectation of reward or recognition.  Working with a consciousness of love (unselfish giving).

 

We are rarely taught to serve in life.  We are taught to work.  Work, we are taught, is the act of doing what needs to be done in order to acquire the things that we need.

 

Service is the act of doing what you love for the sake of loving it.  This is the highest work you can do in the world.  Service is the divine multiplier.  When you perform an act of genuine service, giving of your time, energy, and resources as an act of love, the universe will multiply what you do and reward you with greater results than you expected.

 

. . . [M]ost of us hate what we do for work, hate the environment that we do it in, hate the people we do it with, or are sorely disappointed by the rewards we get.  . . .  We grow in a loving environment.  It's not the money that is missing from the workplace, it is the love.  It is the service.

 

. . . [S]ervice, doing what you love, has rewards that money cannot buy.  It has become very clear to me that when you give yourself over to acts of love, passionately spending your time giving yourself over to acts of love, you are never at a loss or lack for the things that you needBelieve it or not, we need much more in life than money.  We need a sense of purpose.  Purpose keeps you from being burnt out.  Service gives you purpose.  We need a personal mission that will help us focus our time and energy.  When you are on a mission, you have passion, there is an internal fire that keeps you alive.  Service keeps you alive and well.  . . . Service gives you a reason to take care of yourself.

 

When you serve, you are not tied to the outcome.  You are not invested in what people do as a result of what you do, or what people think about what you are doing.  You give what you have because it makes you feel good. You give what you have because you know that the unique way in which you do what you do will make someone else feel good.

 

You may never know in this lifetime how your work and contributions made in love affect people.  However, when you give a service, this is not your concern.  You do what you do because you love to do it.  Whatever you love will touch somebody.

 

Service, as s spiritual principle, does not imply or import poverty.  Most of us think that if you serve, giving of yourself without focusing on the money, you will be poor.  . . .  There is a problem with this line of thinking.

 

Do what you love! Do it with passion!  Do it with the understanding that if you are never rewarded with money or recognized by the public, you are making a valuable contribution to yourself.  Shift your focus from money to love.  When you have love, you want to give of yourself.  When you give of yourself for the sake of love, the impersonal, immutable, perfect laws of the universe demand that you must be rewarded tenfold.

  
 
Adapted from One Day My Soul Just Opened Up  
by
Iyanla Vanzant 

 

A Beautiful Message 

for the 

Holiday Season!

 

 

Forgive Pray Love  -  Iyanla's Fixins Hangouts on Air
Forgive Pray Love 
 Iyanla's Fixins Hangouts on Air
 

    

 

 Something for the Men  

 

6 Steps to Keeping the Peace this Holiday Season

 

 

  These tips can help avoid resentment and

friction at family gatherings   

 

Our expectations of family members and a desire to have a heartwarming, joyful time with them seem to peak during holiday gatherings. Yet that's precisely when relatives can be at their worst, replaying old grievances and interacting in incredibly unproductive ways.

 

 

 

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Inner Visions Institute
Silver Spring, Maryland 20907