ACIM Lesson 197

Lesson 197: “It can be but my gratitude I earn.”

We learn from the Course that all that we see is an an opportunity for gratitude.

Our purpose is to have an attitude of gratitude no matter what we see. 

We may not know how to do this in the world when we see scenarios of real suffering there.  The world is chalk full of insanity.  We see it from every avenue from which we turn.  We must learn to trust that God has a purpose about all we see and thus, we are not meant to judge it.

When we judge it, we get consumed with attack thoughts and we are not able to connect with that inner gratitude that the Course says is always possible to feel.  

The world has all kinds of insults that do not appear pleasant or peaceful and therefore, we may forget to allow everything without making what we see a problem.

The Course teaches us above all else, allow gratitude to be our steady mantras.

We are learning to be gentle with our minds when our ego is ruler.  We learn to not be vigorously protesting what the world shows us- it is rather the vision of God.  Gentleness is ever so important.  We must be gentle with our judgment.  It is a huge charge we carry and undoubtedly we all get attached to having it.  Letting it go is often an involved process.  We want to be considerate of our ego’s insanity.

The ego is not being helpful and we must get to a place where we are clear with the ego that we don’t want its predominance in the ship of our minds.

However, we can also be gentle because this is a huge process when we allow our current thinking to really unravel. 

We need to give it all to God and let God be in charge of letting our insanity unscramble.  However, we also want to appreciate that we are human and we get stuck sometimes in the process of getting to God.

Therefore, we do this with true lightness. 

We give it to God in our moments of peaceful clarity and we also allow for whatever ups and downs we may feel in this process. 

We allow this process space and time in our minds and the gentle touch of God’s guidance.  Even though the ego has big hurdles we still remember to love our egos while we give them clear boundaries about what is acceptable.

This lesson says, “It does not matter if another thinks your gifts unworthy.  In his mind there is a part that joins with yours in thanking you.”

Jesus teaches us that our own gratitude is our gift to ourselves. 

There are plenty of times where we do things for others in the world and then in the world’s traditions as a response, people usually say thank or give something in return.  We must be sure to let this ego urge go.  The ego has certain ideas about what it thinks is acceptable.  In the world people may or may not say thank you.

We must not let our egos get so planted into their own idea of what is acceptable for some return. 

We don’t know how other people feel and what feels appropriate to them.  Other people may have a different style of being thankful. Sometimes people want to not verbally respond.  We want to not be angry about this.  Trust that God has some agenda about this thank you and therefore, we must not judge it.   Also people do say thank you in a totally unique style than we may be currently used to.

The Course reminds us that we can sit and feel totally satisfied with our own gratitude and therefore, we don’t need to wait for someone else’s gratitude to sustain our good spirits. 

The Course says that God loves us and therefore we can sit in God’s certainty all the time, no matter what comes in the world.  Just know that our own feeling of gratitude that we are infinitely blessed to have God’s love is all the gratitude we need to fill our own inner well of love and gratitude.  Therefore, we can let go that ego’s insanity in trying to get other people to say thank you in some particular manner.

2 Comments
  1. Bob 8 years ago

    You exude peace and I receive it here. I am grateful for you.

  2. Author
    Laurie Prez 8 years ago

    I value you too. And I am very grateful we get to live Course principles together. It works when we do it and getting to feel each other’s vibe and peace is the certain benefit on top of the joy the practice brings. Blessings, friend.

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