With Thanksgiving right around the corner, it’s time to start a gratitude journal. All you need to get started is:
·A regular notebook
·A pin
·Something to be grateful for (and all of us have many somethings to be grateful for).
Alternately, you can use:
·A computer
·Word Processing software
·Something to be grateful for
I prefer to handwrite everything I’m grateful for in a notebook. It feels more like a journal that way.
Using a Gratitude Journal
Each day, start a new page in your gratitude journal (and date it). From morning until you retire for the night, list every positive thing that happens it your life. You should list both the big positives and the small positives.
For instance, getting an unexpected check in the mail when you are broke might be a big positive. Reading an inspirational quote from one of your Facebook friends, a quote that lifts your mood just when you need it the most, might be a small positive.
Nevertheless, list them all.
Benefits of Starting (and Keeping) a Gratitude Journal
Louise Hay is fond of saying that the Universe loves gratitude; the more you are grateful for what you have, the more the Universe gives you to be grateful for. I have found this to be true in my own life.
Starting and keeping a gratitude journal has many benefits:
-It allows you to see evidence of a responsive, prosperous Universe.
-You become aware of how much you have to be grateful for in your life.
-You start experiencing more frequent (and more special) incidents from which to be thankful.
Oprah Winfrey has said that she has been keeping a gratitude journal for years, and look how it’s worked for her!
So this Thanksgiving, start a gratitude journal. Next Thanksgiving, read about all the astounding events that have happened in your life since starting this journal. I think you’ll be amazed.
Forgiveness is an important spiritual law, without which we cannot easily manifest our desires. Jesus frequently spoke about the need to forgive all others before praying to God. Yet, few of us can say that we hold no grudges or resentments against certain others in our lives.
I believe that the reason we cannot forgive others is that we do not know what forgiveness is. Rather, we believe what forgiveness is not. Let’s start with what forgiveness is NOT, then.
Forgiveness is NOT accepting what that person did to you.
Forgiveness is NOT saying that what that person did to you was okay.
Forgiveness is NOT allowing that person back into your life if their behavior is such that they could hurt you again.
So what is forgiveness?
I had what Oprah Winfrey calls an “Aha Moment” by watching this YouTube video from Oprah’s Lifeclass.
Forgiveness is not accepting what that person did to you; forgiveness is accepting that it has happened to you.
Forgiveness is giving up the hope that the past could be any different than what it was.
Forgiveness is giving up the perception that what had happened to you was bad, giving up the judgment of that action. Then coming back to the present and living here.
After watching this video, I can feel the shift taking place within my soul. I feel the baggage of unforgiveness—the resentment and trauma of a narcissistic and verbally abusive mother—dropping from me.
I feel the lightness of my being.
Do you have trouble forgiving others? Tell me some stories of your battles with forgiveness. I’d love to hear them.
I was surfing YouTube one day, when I came across many unexpected (and even scary) videos…
Oprah Winfrey, many Christian ministers claim, is the Antichrist…or Satan’s pawn…or demon possessed.
Why?
Because Oprah has openly denied Christ as the one and only way to obtain salvation.
I watched a few of these videos like the one above, and I must say that I was scared of Oprah and her New Age teachings. How dare this prominent and very influential woman lead people to hell?
But then I remembered something…I believe the same way! Was I going to hell? I began to doubt myself, began to feel ashamed of my belief system. Dammit, I shook myself, why can’t we all just get along? Why can’t we just accept each others’ religious or spiritual belief systems? Why do we Christians have to believe that Jesus is the only way to God?
Because the New Testament of the Bible tells us so, that’s why.
A Christian New Ager
My initial response to Oprah Winfrey being the Antichrist because of her New Age beliefs had been but a reflex action that had come from my Baptist Christian roots.
As a child, I went to church regularly. I can still recite from memory many Bible passages. But I soon realized that there was something missing. The Bible wasn’t telling us everything about Jesus and his teachings.
Through much study and contemplation, I finally realized that the Bible that we read today was skillfully compiled by men with a political and religious agenda. Important and enlightening books were left out of the Bible, some of these books were part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The books that were left (to be included in the Bible) were subject to massive revision of verses in order to get them to follow a prescribed belief system. Then, the New Testament was written in Hebrew or Aramaic, so mistranslations of these ancient books abound in the Bibles that we read today.
And if that weren’t enough to shake one’s faith in the veracity of the Bible, consider this:
The four books of the Bible that talks about Jesus’ life and his teachings—the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—debate whether or not any of these authors ever knew Jesus or knew anyone who actually knew Jesus.
My Belief in Jesus
I consider myself a Christian with a love of, and a belief, in Jesus. But from there, my beliefs diverge quite a bit from those of traditional Christians.
Here’s what I believe about Jesus:
·I believe that Jesus was a highly evolved, enlightened being who came to earth to teach enlightenment to humans.
·I believe that Jesus came to teach us how much power we have, that we are co-creators with God:
oThe Kingdom of God is within you – Luke 17:21
oIf ye have faith as a grain of mustardseed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. – Matthew 17:19-21
oThen Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. – Matthew 15:28
·I believe that when Jesus spoke of himself as the Son of God, he was not speaking of himself as the unique son of God. Rather, he was speaking of himself as the son of God just as all of us are children of God.
·I believe that Jesus did not intend to start a religion. But the people who heard Jesus’ teachings and witnessed his miracles were understandably awed enough to construct a religion around him.
Yes, I am well aware of the Bible’s warning about false prophets who will turn us from Jesus whereby we will be cast into the Lake of Fire. Is Oprah Winfrey one of these false prophets, the Antichrist? I don’t believe so. I believe that she has woken up from the same religious dogma that has caused so much negative judgments of others’ lifestyles and beliefs, the same religious dogma that has caused so much hatred, which has started so many wars and caused so many deaths.
As for myself, I cannot believe in a vengeful God who also loves us, nor can I believe in an egotistic Jesus who demands that we can only be saved through him.
