Expectations

I’ve heard it said that if you’re constantly being disappointed it’s because your expectations are too high.  I think the opposite is true: you’re disappointed because your expectations are too low, especially of yourself.  Disappointment is our reaction to someone else so it’s not really about them, it’s about us.  Our reaction – our problem.

Here’s the solution. Change your expectations of yourself.  Spiritualize them.

If you expect always to behold yourself as the image and likeness of God and hold yourself accountable to that expectation through prayer, what’s the likelihood you’ll be disappointed?  Very small.  Why?  Because your thought drives your experience.  Manage thought, manage experience.

There’s a great statement in Science and Health that explains it this way: “Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously.” (See page 392)  Wow.

That means though, that you need to take a look at your thoughts – your expectations and conclusions – before you think them.  Yes, you can do that.  You can choose your thoughts through prayerful watching.

Once you get the hang of it you can begin to choose kinder thoughts, healthier thoughts, holier thoughts.  Wouldn’t it be great to experience more of those things?  It’s as simple as praying about it.  And then expecting your prayer to be answered.

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.  If you like what you’re reading, click the “add me” button.

Blind Spots

We can see them in others – but seem to be pretty oblivious to them in ourselves.  Hence the name.  To imagine that we’re imune from their influence is pretty naive.  However, knowing that you have one, and knowing what it is, are two different things.

Jesus had a wonderful antidote for blind spots in the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew chapters 5 through 7).  For example, if we’re all worked up about something someone else has done, we’ll probably find the same characteristic in ourselves. Gasp! The Master by way of a question explains it this way: “why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?”

Or if we’re being generous with strangers but stingy with those we know – regardless of whether it’s justified or not, Jesus has this to say: “first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”

Or if we know how everyone else should eat or dress, and we’re totally preoccupied with it ourselves, we’re told to “take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on.”  Oops.

The most precious answer, perhaps the heart of the Sermon on the Mount, and the absolute solution for uncovering every blind spot, is The Lord’s Prayer.  Yep.  Importunately pondering each phrase, looking inward to see if it meets with agreement, and then living sincerely with its message is a guarantee of dissolving our blind spots.  And helping us to dissolve the blind spots of others as well, gracefully.

That’s a good thing.

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.  If you like what you’re reading, click the “add me” button.

Missed Opportunity?

Sometimes it seems that once you miss an opportunity it’s just gone – and then you inevitably suffer the consequences of having missed it.  But what if that’s not the way it has to be?  Mary Baker Eddy has this take on the issue: “…to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good. The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love.” (see page 494 of Science and Health) And Jesus said “lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”  (see Matthew 28:20)

Taken together, these two sayings indicate that there is a different viewpoint that can lift the whole conversation about opportunity into a spiritual realm, a realm not governed by chance but by God.  The God I know, the God taught in Christian Science, is not arbitrary, nor does He withhold good from one while pouring it forth to another.  God blesses one and all, all the time, no matter what, no matter when.

Our job, then, as those looking to take advantage of an opportunity – or at least hoping for one, is to expect God’s goodness to be available when we need it.  I’m not talking wishful thinking here, but the heartfelt recognition of real provision, real care.  God’s Love is genuine and ever present, just as He is.

It’s a matter of looking away from circumstances or people or the planets as the purveyor of opportunity, to God, good alone.  And then expecting that shift in thought to bear fruit.  This last point is important.  Expect that trusting God is an effective means of self-direction.  You won’t be disappointed.

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.  If you like what you’re reading, click the “add me” button.

Joy!

My cousin is in town taking care of some difficult family business.  And as wearing and even painful as it all is, or could be, she is nothing but light and joy.  Don’t get me wrong: she’s not a Pollyanna.  But she made a decision at some point in her life – a very tough life in many ways – to only be positive.  She always finds the silver lining.

This quality of living – to be joyful regardless of circumstances – was something Jesus was very good at.  Just think of what the Bible tells us about him upon learning of John the Baptist’s death.  He wanted to get away to a “desert place” to perhaps pray and collect himself.  But the multitudes gave him no quiet time.  Mark says that he “was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.”  (see Chapter 6)  He even went on to feed them with 5 loaves and 2 fishes.  And then to walk on the water.  (See Matthew 14)

How do we cultivate this sense of persistent and effective joy – the joy that Jesus says no one can take from you ? (see John 16:22)  How do we maintain a standard of equanimity in the face of an ever-changing world?  How do we get outside of our own viewpoint to find a purer and sweeter consistency?

Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the church I belong to, once wrote, “It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony.”  (See Science and Health page 390)  In other words, the better you know God, the less likely you are to be fooled by the sights and sounds of mortal existence.

These are wise words to live by, and doing so is a pretty good guarantee of lifelong joy.

Melissa Hayden is a Christian Science practitioner in Salem, OR. You can find more information and additional articles at this link.  If you like what you’re reading, click the “add me” button.