My spiritual identity has its foundation in the DIVINE IDEA of JOY. I carry it with me wherever I go and in everything I do. It is always available; it is up to me to access it.
Like the sun that is always shining even when obscured by clouds, the DIVINE IDEA of JOY is available in my happiest moments as well as during darker times. Joy-spotting is the spiritual practice of identifying those moments when I spontaneously feel joy. It grounds me in the present. I remain responsive, adaptive, and accepting what I cannot change and have the courage to change and influence what I can.
Over and over again, I access and give expression to the DIVINE IDEA of JOY that helps me be rooted in happiness, peace, and wholeness.
Viktor Frankl, Holocaust survivor and Austrian Psychiatrist, wisely said, “We have absolutely no control over what happens to us in life but what we have paramount control over is how we respond to those events.” In short, I can only control the controllables. I have absolute control over what is happening within me. I have the power to choose my responses and actions, which are key to my freedom.
No one and no thing can make me feel a certain way. I am always living from the inside out. I freely choose my thoughts, feelings, words, and actions. If I don’t like what is happening in my life, I can make new choices.
I do not squander my freedom. I take full responsibility for my life; I am free to create my future based on my inherent DIVINITY.
I smile as I watch children play. Their boundless energy seems so natural, so effortless. It must also be natural to me. When I want to reignite this energy, I remember the POWERS of LIFE and ZEAL are its source within me.
Centered in this awareness, I feel renewed vitality. As I take care of my family, move through my workday, enjoy time with dear ones, or volunteer in my community, I engage it all with vitality and enthusiasm as I feel my energy build.
If I feel my enthusiasm faltering, I don’t despair. Instead, I pause for a moment to re-synchronize myself with my DIVINITY. I access DIVINE LIFE, ZEAL, and STRENGTH. I feel my energy quickening throughout my body. I shimmer with energy and go about doing what is mine to do.
I don’t need special skills to serve others. I have willing hands and an open heart for expressing my innate DIVINITY.
This impulse to serve comes from my compassionate nature. I respond to the needs around me by doing what is mine to do in the spirit of helpfulness. I do not think of reward or recognition. Simply being of service fills my heart.
Being in service to others is a wonderful way to express my DIVINITY through my humanity. My loving heart is open, my hands are busy, and my life feels purposeful when I am doing what I can to brighten another person’s life or to make the world a better place. My humanity feels synchronized with my DIVINITY when I serve and share my love and compassion.
I express my DIVINITY as I fill my consciousness with thoughts and feelings aligned with the DIVINE IDEA of WHOLENESS. Inwardly, I bless myself as I affirm and claim wholeness. Outwardly, I nourish myself with healthy nutrition and the proper balance of exercise and rest. I am whole and complete. I am full of life.
If I experience illness, I may choose to receive treatment but do not consider myself weak or diseased. Even if part of my body may appear ill, I focus my attention on the vast majority of cells, tissues, and organs that are expressing health and wholeness. I live focused upon the DIVINE IDEAs of HEALTH, WHOLENESS, LIFE, and so many more.
I move through health challenges with faith and grace, knowing these experiences will pass. DIVINE WHOLENESS is always available to me to restore myself to physical and mental wholeness.
As 2023 ends, I reflect upon the joyful times and the not so joyful times. In prayerful contemplation, I feel gratitude as I accept and embrace it all. I have laughed, cried, celebrated, and grieved, and here I stand.
As days turned into weeks and weeks into months, I have met the year’s events with faith and have grown resilient. Now it’s time for me to release it all as I embrace the days, weeks, and months ahead.
I learned during the past 12 months – from my joys and sorrows and everything in between! I am prepared for the new year. I release limitations and embrace my hopes and dreams. I release my adverse ego as I fully embrace my DIVINITY. I step boldly and bravely into the new year.
Christmas Eve brings back memories of childhood anticipation. What’s in the packages under the tree? What other goodies will be there in the morning?
Now I relish the anticipation of the joy my gifts will bring as I watch my loved ones opening their presents. This joy blooms in my heart as the Advent season culminates in preparation for Christmas day. I double down on my conscious awareness of my DIVINITY.
I still my mind and become present. I contemplate the awe of the shepherds as they heard of Jesus’ birth. I think of the veneration of the kings who traveled to honor him. I embrace and amplify my feelings of awe and wonder.
This is the time of year when daylight increases. Similarly, I increase my awareness of the light, love, and joy I am.
The focus of the third Sunday of Advent is love. The PRINCIPLE of LOVE is present in ITs entirety in us and everywhere at same the time. My use of the PRINCIPLE of LOVE can result in dispelling the darkness of loneliness and even conflict with the light of harmony and togetherness.
I also know LOVE is the basis of our important ability to desire. In Keep a True Lent (p. 146), Charles Fillmore said, “Sincere desire is a form of prayer.”
Love is secular and sacred, human and divine, immediate and immortal, personal and universal. Amid seasonal greetings for hope, peace and joy, I appreciate the importance of the POWER of LOVE. I am responsible for expressing love throughout the world by my words and actions. I am kind, patient, compassionate, empathetic, encouraging, supportive, and so much more.
I seek to embody peace. No matter what might be happening around me, I can rise above that which troubles and distracts me, all that takes my attention away from my spiritual life and my DIVINITY.
PEACE is PRINCIPLE and IT is always mine since it is an aspect of my DIVINITY. When peace feels far away, I re-center myself. I return to the practices I use to calm my mind and open my heart. As I relax and enter the Silence, I center upon my DIVINITY and manifest peace.
That peace is my own. Returning to activity, I carry peace with me. I bring harmony to my interactions, calm to my reactions, and tranquility to every corner of my life. I will be peaceful because I am inherently PEACE Itself.
FAITH is one of the 12 POWERS; IT is a DIVINE IDEA or PRINCIPLE. ITs uses range from hope to conviction. As Advent season begins, I feel a quickening, a renewal deep within me as I embark upon the spiritual journey leading to Christmas.
I may have hope for lasting peace, greater love, or abiding joy. But as I have grown spiritually, I have learned to look for those things within, to claim them as expressions manifested from my DIVINE IDENTITY. Once I do that, I may begin to see them manifest in my life.
Like my other POWERS, it’s up to me to use my Power of FAITH wisely. I have conviction that world peace, love, and joy are possible here and now. I am using the POWER of FAITH with IMAGINATION to envision each manifesting with ease and grace.
