The New Transcendentalists
Posted: June 17, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: New Thought, Science of Mind, Religious Science, Ernest Holmes, optimism, metaphysical truth, positive thinking, RW Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Walt Whitman, Transcendentalism, Bronson Alcott, Walden Pond 2 Comments »
My friends, the Zagwyns, are in Massachusetts this summer so they sent me photos of some Transcendentalist landmarks, including Walden Pond. They knew I’d love to see and hear all about this amazing spiritual vortex. This is the birthplace of the Transcendentalist movement and New Thought followed closely behind. I like to think of us as the New Transcendentalists.
If you attend a Center for Spiritual Living Center or follow New Thought some other way, your lineage includes a group of distinguished American thinkers called Transcendentalists. Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott and Walt Whitman are among them. You have a very proud heritage.
The early New Thought writers all quoted Emerson and for many, many years, he was the best known, most quoted and most widely read of all American authors. For example, my mother could quote Emerson poems by heart.
It is difficult for us to imagine how much impact Emerson had because his ideas are all around us today and they don’t seem that original. However, he was a revolutionary influence in the fields of philosophy, religion, and literature. His ideas about finding God in Nature, self-reliance and trusting ourselves branded the character of this nation as democratic and self-reliant.
Emerson was trained as a Congregational minister but he did not believe in some of the rituals, including communion. He decided to become a writer and platform speaker instead. In 1836, he published an essay called Nature. It was not particularly well received but now it is a standard reading in college English classes.
The same year Nature was published, Emerson helped establish an informal group popularly called the Transcendentalists. This group originally gathered to discuss new ideas from Europe; instead, they became the birthplace of independent American thinking. The Transcendentalists were important founders of abolition, women’s suffrage, and authentic American literature as well as opening up traditional religious thinking.
Emerson was the central figure in the movement. During the next fifty years, Emerson wrote and spoke all over the nation and in parts of Europe. His essays included Self-Reliance, Compensation, Spiritual Laws and the Over Soul. Our CSL class on Emerson includes these and other essays as well as some history of the era.
So many of the ideas and attitudes that we think of as distinctly American come from the works of Emerson and the Transcendentalists. It is hard to imagine a world without them. It is also extremely difficult to imagine Religious Science without Transcendentalism.
Emerson found God everywhere and Ernest Holmes accepted the immanence of God as an absolute truth. Emerson said we should be self-reliant and listen to our hearts. Holmes believed that our intuition was a pathway to God’s wisdom. Emerson wrote, “To thine own self be true”. Holmes said, “Every man knows the truth.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson was born 1804 and died 1889. He was Harvard educated but he urged American intellectuals to take a self-reliant attitude and stop looking toward the European past. He consistently called for an authentic American voice in literature. Emerson said many wise things, including “Imitation is suicide.”
Ernest Holmes was born 1902 and died 1956. He was a self-educated thinker who combined Emerson’s idealism with mental healing techniques. The 1937 Science of Mind Textbook is one of the most influential books of the 20th century.
The two men lived in entirely different worlds, even though they were New Englanders, because of the differences in life at their different times. Despite these material differences, Emerson and Holmes had much in common. Both were born into families with dominant mothers and absent fathers. Both had brothers, but no sisters. Both men were precocious, avid readers and showed amazing promise at an early age. Emerson entered Harvard at 14. Holmes dropped out of school because he was bored and studied independently.
Both were born in New England. Emerson lived his whole life around Boston – most of it in Concord, and that was the vortex of intellectual power in his time. His neighbors and friends were some of the most brilliant people in US history. Margaret Fuller, Bronson Alcott, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Theodore Parker and in New York City, Walt Whitman were all his good friends.
Holmes chose to move to the creative center of his time – Los Angeles. His congregation was filled with movie stars, and one of his main financial contributors was the man who subdivided Bel Aire. The Institute he established included Asian religious leaders, college professors and psychologists. Holmes’s open mind blew away any narrow idea of religion. The teaching was called Religious Science because he viewed life as a whole, with no split between science and religion or the visible and invisible worlds.
Emerson and Holmes shared a similarity in temperament which was instrumental in making them great leaders in thought and in life at the same time it was a result of their beliefs. They were both happy, well adjusted, loving men. In his day, Emerson was often described as sanguine, which means he was never ruffled, and always optimistic. Holmes was also sanguine. A woman who attended my church used to go to hear him in earlier times. Once, I asked her, “What was he like?” She thought quite a while and finally said, “He was a merry little man.”
Both men were generous. During Emerson’s lifetime, he supported his mother, brothers, friends, including the Alcott family for most of their life. He also very generously sponsored the publication of other writers works. Stories about generosity abound about Holmes’s as well. They both lived well and neither was interested in amassing a lot of money. They expected it to be there.
Emerson and Holmes shared many beliefs. They both believed in idealism – that is they believed that behind every material experience, there was a spiritual cause. They believed in abundance – that is they could share their wealth, give of themselves, circulate freely and there would be enough to go around. They believed in self-reliance, that is, that the final authority in our lives is within, that we must look within to find our unique and individualized truth.
They believed in the sacredness of life – all life. Neither man distinguished good and bad aspects of life, but they saw only good. They were both fascinated by Asian religions and incorporated compassion and detachment into in their teaching. Nevertheless, they remained Westerners. They believed in the innate value of all people. They recognized that all of us have a divine origin and nature.
This is your lineage. If you have studied Ernest Holmes, you have also studied Ralph Waldo Emerson. Their wisdom is available to you as a gift from the Universe. Say thank you and accept; happiness, peace, idealism, optimism, self-reliance, sacred life, and all the other components of their enlightenment.
Ask Yourself
What would I like to accept from Holmes or Emerson?
What would more self-reliance feel like?
What would more self-love feel like?
What would _____ feel like?
Where can I learn more?
It’s All Her Fault!
Posted: May 2, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: abortion, Bible, cultural beliefs, New Thought, Religious Science, sexist attitudes, spiritual wisdom, women's rights 6 Comments »
I’m amazed! I thought we won these battles a long time ago, yet I see on the evening news that state after state is closing in on women’s freedom to choose. A woman should have a choice about what to do with her own body. Is this a time warp and it is 1960?…Otherwise there is no excuse for this nonsense.
For a while, I was a home teacher and one of my students was a shy, lovely young woman who had been told she couldn’t come to school because she was pregnant and might “contaminate” other girls.
She got caught in an unwanted pregnancy and chose to carry the child to full term. No matter what her choices were after the child was born, this was a setback for her and her life plans. It was a long time ago.
We all face setbacks in life and she had the intelligence to manage better than most unwed mothers. If it was her decision to keep her child, she was headed toward poverty, according to the statistics. If she chose to have her child adopted, that was fine although there could be psychological issues. She had some difficult choices to make.
I didn’t know her well and we didn’t talk personally. She was a good student and I tried to teach her well. I remember I thought it was very unfair to kick her out of school but life was very unfair for women. It’s a sure bet that the baby’s father didn’t have to leave.
Abortions were still not legal and I have no idea if she would have wanted one but the point is, she didn’t have a safe choice. Every woman deserves a choice!
That was a long time ago and times have changed. Teens now are usually allowed to finish school and some of the girls are allowed to choose a special school where they also get parenting classes.
I wrote a book called Young Parents once and I learned from the research. If the girls choose to keep their kids, they were statistically doomed to poverty for the remainder of their lives. Of course there are exceptions but most teen parents struggle for years. Almost none have a baby’s father who stays in the picture.
When I taught high school, back in the Sixties, I heard kids say you couldn’t get pregnant the first time. Some of those kids also believed that you had to “really enjoy it” before you could get pregnant.
Those kids were sixteen years old and it was more than fifty years ago. United States Congressmen and State Representatives are a long way from high school. Some of them spouted ideas on the news that were more nonsensical ideas than any I have ever heard from a teenager.
Why are they really against Planned Parenthood? Why are they attempting to whittle away at abortion clinics? I can’t believe they are motivated by religion or they’d be more religious about helping the children who are already here. I think they must believe that their views will bring them more votes from people who fear change.
These fearful voters are the same ones who are routinely trying to keep poor people from voting. They also want more guns and they are anti-immigration and the list goes on. If dinosaurs ran for office, the change-adverse voters would rush to vote for them. Oops! Dinosaurs do run.
Resistance to change concerns me but I really get hot about the shutting down of abortion centers and the persecution of Planned Parenthood organizations because I have a great long term memory.
In my day, girls were routinely blamed for getting pregnant. We were supposed to know better and understand that boys had “needs” that would drive them to distraction. It was up to us girls, when we went on a date, to keep our wits about us and our knees shut.
During this last election, I heard several political figures spouting the same nonsense. I even heard one candidate claiming that women cannot get pregnant if they are “legitimately” raped. That is probably based on my 1960’s students’ belief that you had to enjoy it before it worked to make babies.
If my news station is to be believed, that is a fairly common belief today. I had never heard that particular canard until recently, but apparently it has been around a long time in the right-to-life circles. Do they old guys still chuckle and say, “If rape is inevitable, relax and enjoy it?”
All of this is just another alarming sign of the age-old prejudice against women. Whether it is a judge who blames the rape victim because she wear the wrong clothes or the neighbor who blames the teenage girl for going out with that wild boy, it always centers on the idea that it is all her fault.
How about your family? If you have children and grandchildren, what are you teaching them? Do you tell the girls to be careful and the boys to have fun? I hope not.
As a retired Religious Science minister, I’m supposed to look on the positive side and I usually do. The positive side here is that it will all change despite some people’s attempts to block progress. And I’m positively glad to know that New Thought arose, to make progress and accepting women as equals was part of that forward movement.
Many feminists deny all the traditional teachings as being anti-female and patriarchal. Their interest is in ancient teachings featuring goddesses and that is an interesting development. I’m glad they are doing it but I’m happy to see there are other attempts to the nonsense in the dominant religions.
Some people see the Bible as an old fashioned book that promotes men into leadership positions of power. They say blaming the woman is a common theme in the Old Testament.
True – there are a lot of stories about women enticing men to sin, probably because men wrote the book. Whether it is Eve, Delilah or Jezabel, these Biblical characters are nasty ladies. Some of the traditional churches seem to hang on to those attitudes, stating that women cannot be priests or ministers and the man is head of the household.
But most of the traditional churches are moving away from those beliefs based on stories written thousands of years ago. Protestant seminaries are crammed with women studying to be ministers. We are living in more enlightened times.
I don’t worry so much about what the churches say anyway. If someone chooses to believe that sex without a desire to conceive is a sin and not use birth control, that is personal business. It becomes impersonal when freedom of choice for every woman is threatened.
I think this is a good time to take a good look at the issue of women’s rights in general and check out your own attitudes about sexual behavior. Is it all the woman’s fault in your world?
Ask Yourself
Do I want to change any of my personal attitudes?
Do I want to investigate this issue?
Do I want to tell my legislators how I feel?
Old Friends – New Friends
Posted: April 25, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: 80th birthday, aging, changing your life, connection to others, friends, Law of Attraction, metaphysical truth, New Thought, spiritual studies 10 Comments »
I just spent almost a week celebrating my 80th birthday and it was wonderful. There were cards and letters from many lovely people and some dear old friends showed up for the party. What good fortune to live long enough to really enjoy life!
Whoever it was that said, “Youth is wasted on the young”, wasn’t looking at the whole picture. It seems to me that every decade brings great joy and great adventures. I loved being 18 in some ways and I love being 80 in other ways. It truly is all good.
One important difference this year was that my church, my family, my friends, and I, all made a big deal out of this birthday. I don’t usually pay much attention but this one impressed me. I even spoke on the topic, “What I Have Learned”. You can find it on the CSL Carlsbad website.
The co-pastors of the Center, Rev. Debby ODonnell and Rev. Mattie Dobbs let some of my old friends know about the day and I was surprised and grateful to hear from so many. It made me feel very loved.
Some of my favorite people showed up from far away places. I received wonderful letters from old friends – some who moved far away and also from people who are relatively new to the church. You have no idea how great it is to get missives telling you how your teaching of Science of Mind has changed someone’s life.
I started the church almost 25 years ago with only one idea. I wanted to teach Science of Mind and, according to my notes, cards and letters, I did it! It took several hours to read everyone’s messages. They nearly all told me how much they had learned Science of Mind from the church and my books and how it helped them. I believe their kind words and today I feel as though I have achieved my dream.
The letters and notes were one high point. The former students who visited were another. So were the many volunteers in the church who helped organize a spectacular church event. It was all perfect.
Funny thing about birthdays. We change a lot as we go along the years but we are still the same person. I sometimes forget I’m not still that young girl with her nose buried in the book or that young mother caring for an infant. It feels like a very short time since I started the Center For Spiritual Living in Carlsbad. I am eternally young.
On the other hand, the mirror tells a different story. I have changed physically and emotionally. No roller skating anytime soon but I have mellowed a lot. I am not nearly as unhappy as I was when I was younger. I like life more. I like people better.
Science of Mind gave me a sense of self-worth that I really needed. It has also gave me the courage to reach out and connect with people. I didn’t do that as well as a younger person. Strangers seemed threatening.
Some people seem to be born friendly and to enjoy people, even as teenagers and younger adults. I tended to be all tied up in myself, in my problems and my work. I have met many more good friends in my second half of life – mostly through my church.
I started going to church to heal emotionally and to succeed at my writing work. I wasn’t thinking about friendships. When I became a leader in church, it surprised me that so many people joined a church to make friends. I think I may have even disapproved.
The idea of a spiritual community grew on me rather quickly because I met so many great people who were students and leaders of Science of Mind. At some point, I realized that whatever brought the people together was good. We are One in God. Now, although I still believe the purpose of church should be to teach how to use spiritual law, I no longer cringe when I hear “spiritual community.” I have reconsidered as I wised up.
It now seems to me that my dear friends – old and new – are one of my greatest gifts from this teaching. Of course, I know spiritual law well enough to understand my ability to create solid friendships has developed because I’ve learned to love and accept myself more. I now can also love and accept others easier.
As I have learned to make good friends, I have had to release the expectations about my friends agreeing with me. I no longer need someone to reinforce my beliefs to accept him or her into my life. When I was younger, I was more insecure so I only wanted friendships with people like me. I needed agreement! Unfortunately, in those days, I couldn’t always agree with myself.
I’ve matured. I’ve learned that my grandmother was right when she said there is more than one way to skin a cat. I still don’t know why anyone would want to skin a cat but I do know that people go about life differently and if it works for them, it works from me.
The joy of having an active spiritual community is that it is a place to meet people with similarities who are willing to let you be in their lives without being in your back pocket. Some people only want one best friend but that isn’t enough for me. I am too complicated for just one best friend. I agree with Walt Whitman who said, “I contain multitudes.”
One at a time, amazing people have gathered in my life and each one has opened up a new view of how life can be lived. I learned to be alike them in some ways and skipped the rest. This friend is interested in art and so am I. This one loves to chat about old movies and so do I. We touch but we do not flatten each other.
I especially treasure those friends who make me laugh. Laughter is such a gift in anyone’s life. I can be just as close to the serious ones if I feel they are honest and true. The only thing I watch for is that the friendship is balanced and not just one person trying to cheer the other up all the time. There is more to friendship than nurturing although that can be very important.
Mostly, I believe friends should cherish each other for who they are. None of us is alike but we are all blooming in God’s garden, delighting each other with our differences as well as with our likenesses and agreements.
Here’s one thing I’ve learned I want to share. When we widen our viewpoint and appreciate life for what it is, we can open up to more people’s friendship. When we accept that we are all Love in action (or God in action), then we can widen each other’s scope of life. We will find friends easily.
I had a happy birthday and I thank you. If you are reading this blog, you are my friend and that means we are a gift to each other.
Ask Yourself
Do I want more friends?
What kinds of people would I like to know better?
Am I a good friend to myself?
It’s Not My Truth
Posted: April 11, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: background checks, connection to others, gun control, New Thought, Newtown CO, political action, Sandy Hook, social action, social change, spiritual practice, violence, violence in media 8 Comments »
Last week, I wrote about my wonderful, spiritual town where I live in. At that exact same time, one nearby neighbor shot and killed another neighbor, apparently over a bush trimming feud. When I saw the police cars and TV van, I almost pulled my blog. Instead, I decided to leave it longer than usual. My neighbor’s truth is not my truth.
Everything I wrote about my town is true. Even the TV and newspaper stories started with phrases like “quiet, peaceful and upscale neighborhood.” The facts remain the same except last week we had a murder on my street. No one expected it but it happened here.
Violence happens all the time somewhere in the nation. My neighbor’s quarrel should have been settled reasonably between two sane people. I believe it might have been settled rationally if no one had a gun.
Beyond the news stories, I cannot make a judgment about the case, but I am free to make the judgment that there are many too many guns around. I realize that stricter gun laws might not have had any effect on my neighbor’s dispute but I do believe that new gun laws are desperately needed.
We must speak out! I hope everyone who reads this will take a stand and urge his or her leaders to continue to push for gun control legislation. When the great majority of citizens are in favor of tighter restrictions, shouldn’t politicians respond? Does money talk louder than the lives of innocents?
Yes, I have heard all that Second Amendment hooey. The Second Amendment was put in the Constitution to protect the American Colonists against the English in the 1700’s. It seems as archaic as Bible laws against eating pigs or shellfish to me. The dietary laws met a health need thousands of years ago but we have food inspectors now.
I know that my comments may sound simplistic but it does seem simple to me. Of course violence would still continue to happen, but if there were fewer guns in this country that would surely slow down the killing.
I’m glad people are talking more seriously about making neighborhoods safer by enacting stricter gun laws. This morning it seems as if we might see a tighter background check law get voted on and passed in the Senate. It is a beginning but there is so much more to be done.
Big city mayors have organized and been speaking out for several months now. Unfortunately, the mayor’s group represents cities, and many suburban folks who felt safer couldn’t hear them. Things have changed.
After the killing of 20 children and their six teachers in Sandy Hook Elementary School, everyone was shocked and it seemed they might be ready to listen. We dared to hope that some good would come out of the Newtown CO massacre.
The death of those innocent children dented in our hearts, They seemed like “our kids”. We already knew about random violence in less privileged neighborhoods but this time, there were so many children killed at once. And they were so young and from white, middle-class suburbs.
I’m certain we would say that a child of the ghetto or barrio deserved as much safety as a child of the suburbs. On the other hand, as I learned last week, it is easier to ignore issues when they happen farther away. Sandy Hook felt closer to home for most of us.
Many of us tried to imagine what it would feel like to lose a young child in the first or second grade to mass gun violence. My heart breaks when I think about it.
There are neighborhoods where death by gun violence is common. Sometimes it is gang activity and everyone involved a teenager. Sometimes random fire strikes a six year old. Can you imagine what it would be like to raise a child in one of those neighborhoods?
Whether in suburb or city, age six or sixteen, life is precious. There are far too many children in the USA who are endangered by guns. We know this and we also know that limiting access to guns would help. That’s why such a large majority (approximately 90%) of voters favor of stricter gun controls.
When politicians put powerful lobbies ahead of representing their constituents’ desires, it is time to elect new politicians. We can change the rules. Politicians who resist gun control legislation can lose in the next game. Why re-elect someone who represents the NRA?
Violence has many facets. There are other things we can do besides limit gun access. We certainly need to curtail the violent video games, and the violence in movies, and on TV. It is a strange world where young people are entertained for hours by playing killing games. Not a good idea – as any psychologist will tell you.
Some of the same people who agree with me on guns will be against censorship of volence. They will quote the First Amendment quicker than the opposition quotes the Second. Neither the First nor Second Amendment is sacred.
Truth is, we already censor free speech in many ways. Liberals should not be afraid to ruffle the feathers of the Hollywood money birds. We are hypocrites if we are not willing to attempt to curtail all violence by saying, “Enough!
As a part of my New Thought spiritual practice, I have avoided violent films for years and I think it is a very good idea to keep your mind clear of violent entertainment. Why fill your head with nonsense? You may believe believe that Django is great art but that is not my Truth.
We also need to find new ways to identify and help individuals with mental health issues. That said, the most immediate need and the most logical place to start curbing violence is with gun control measures.
It looks as if we will get a vote on a background check bill in the Senate very soon. Please do what you can to help it pass. It’s not enough, but it is something. Let’s take what we can get as quickly as we can.
When the bill passes the Senate, it goes to the House and your representatives need to know you want something done. Contact the men and women who represent you NOW. Let them know what you believe and why. Tell them you are watching their votes and that it is important to you.
Whenever someone tells me that a proposed law is not enough, that the problems will remain, I remember the starfish story…
There was once a young man who walking on the beach who came upon hundreds of starfish washed up on the sand. He started picking them up, and throwing them back in the water. His companion said, “Forget it. There are too many dying. It won’t make any difference.” The young man threw two more starfish into the water and said, “It made a difference to those two.”
Remember – Political Action Works!
Ask Yourself
Do I agree?
Is there anything I can do?
What shall I do?
When shall I do it?
Change Thoughts – Change Life
Posted: April 8, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: changing your life, Dr. Ernest Holmes., Law of Attraction, New Thought, Religious Science, Science of Mind, Science of Mind Skills 3 Comments »
Did you ever go to a party and talk about it with your friends the next day? Did it seem as though it was a different event? One friend loved the party and another hated it. Seems as if everyone wears his own tinted glasses.
The fortunate person who grows up believing she lives in a friendly universe enjoys the party. The one who grew up with critical messages doesn’t have much fun. Same party – different party.
In New Thought we believe every person has a mental atmosphere (consciousness) that constantly sends messages out to Universal Mind. The beliefs return to us as experiences, effects or conditions.
A person who believes the world is a lovely place attracts love. On the other hand, the person who believes it is a scary place will attract trouble. Your beliefs create the good news or the bad news. The very best news of all is that you can change your beliefs.
In the first chapter of the Science of Mind Textbook, the founder of Religious Science, Dr. Ernest Holmes says, “To learn how to think is to learn how to live.” Every Sunday, the speaker in a Center For Positive Living, delivers a talk that includes some version of “Change your thinking and change your life.”
One way or another, if we want a condition to change, we must do something so that our attitude toward the issue changes. In a way that is simple. On the other hand, it is a lifetime work.
While none of us is able to control every bit of our lives, we do need to know that we have a great deal more control than most people used to believe. The first time I heard about our thoughts creating our life experiences, I thought it was nonsense. Those who are growing up now are more familiar with ideas of how positive living can impact our lives.
When I was a teen, Ernest Holmes was just hitting his stride. Oprah wasn’t born. I don’t think I knew anyone who believed we lived in a friendly universe. We had just finished a devastating war and most people were frightened there would be another one. But enough people changed their minds so that the Cold War ended with a fizzle, not a bang.
I knew life wasn’t the movies but I dreamed big dreams. I would someday be thirty-five, live in New York City and be a working girl. The term “working girl” meant something quite different in those days and while my dream job was vague, my dream apartment was quite specific and wonderful with white rugs and two white poodles.
Because I dared to dream and because I worked hard, I did eventually end up in New York City but it wasn’t exactly what I’d dreamed. I shared a rent-controlled apartment with an aging, divorcee. Ah well! I never liked poodles anyway.
It took me a long time to change my mind but I am now happier than I could have dreamed as a child. I now believe that we live in a basically friendly universe. My God is a God of unlimited possibility.
So much of what we believe is from the surrounding culture and we are not even always aware of it. We must learn to be independent thinkers. And we must learn to be aware of what we are thinking and what beliefs we are acting upon. We need to remember the law of cause and effect is always working.
Many years ago, I read a chapter in a self-help book on how spiritual law always responds. The chapter was entitled, You Will Always Get The Raise.
The author told a story about a man who worked hard and had a great attitude, but he was overlooked for the raise he deserved. However, this good worker continued his efforts and he was offered an even better job in a different company.
We don’t always get the pay off in exactly the way we envision because our vision is limited. The Law of Attraction is Infinite Power and Infinite Possibility. We should never despair because we will always get what we think we deserve.
To see how the Law of Attraction works, take a look at repeating patterns in the lives of people you know well. Don’t judge or criticize, just observe. After you have done that, your next step is to look at your own repeating patterns without judgment.
Now look again and find some success stories where things have turned around. Perhaps you or someone else has had several unsuccessful relationships and then established an excellent one. If you look closely, you will probably see that something in the belief system changed first.
It may look like fate or luck but change in patterns is because of changed beliefs. This is true in every area of our lives. Accept that you are loveable and Universal Mind will find a way to return the new love and joy. Accept that you deserve to be acknowledged and you will get the promotion. And so it goes.
You will always get the raise, although it may be in a surprising way and not from that old situation.
The concept that the spiritual law of cause and effect returns your prevailing belief is very different than the rules you learned about being a good little boy or girl. Working with spiritual laws opens people’s lives up to unlimited possibility.
You are truly in a position to prove the phrase, Change your thinking and change your life.” Right now. If you have been around Science of Mind for a while, think back to how you were feeling when you first arrived and compare that to how you feel now. You will discover change for the better.
Even if you are new, you can prove this very quickly. Decide on a goal, and do spiritual work around the issue of belief. Keep records and notes for a month, then check you data. One reason Science of Mind is called science is that it is verifiable.
While you can’t change everything overnight or even in a month, you can test it and observe progress. Even better, practice makes perfect. As you learn that you can change your thinking a bit at a time for the rest of your life, it gets easier.
How do you change your thinking? You may find affirmation cards helpful to carry in your pocket and review several times a day. You should think about taking a class and going to church on Sunday. You can buy my book, Science of Mind Skills, on this website by going to New Thought Works page.
Most of us get a much narrower and tighter view of life as children than we discover for ourselves as we become adults. You can change your mind. You are never stuck. You do have choices.
Even if you encounter resistance breaking out of your early belief system, you can do it. Remind yourself that millions have done it before you. Continue your practice and risk putting some effort into changing your thinking. Remember that all effort will be rewarded. You will always get the raise.
Ask Yourself
What’s one belief you’ve changed?
What’s one belief you want to change?
What’s one great prevailing belief you have?
New Thought – New Woman
Posted: March 25, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: Creative Mind, cultural beliefs, Emma Curtis Hopkins Malinda Cramer, Ernest Holmes, et, metaphysical truth, Myrtle & Charles Fillmore, New Thought, Nona Brooks, prosperity principles, RW Emerson, social change, suffrage movement, wise women 7 Comments »
I can’t let March go without writing this… New Thought deserves a very special place in Women’s History. Did you know that New Thought was the first church to have women ministers? Did you know Emma Curtis Hopkins was a leader in the women’s movement?
One reason I was attracted to New Thought in the first place was that women had an equal voice and there were a so many women ministers in our churches.
Recently I read that since the beginning of time, women have been more interesteed in religion than men are. I don’t know if that is true but I do know that I’ve never attended any church anywhere when there weren’t more women that men in the pews. Nevertheless, I’m almost positive we remain the only denomination with more women than men behind the pulpit.
New Thought was started in the 1880’s when the women’s movement was gaining steam but the real reason we allowed women equal power in our churches is because of what we teach – our basic theology. We define God as Creative Intelligence that is present everywhere, and is all powerful and all Good.
God is not an old man in the sky fighting a big battle with a smaller man in a smokin’ red suit from down below. God is neither male nor female but encompasses everything. Since God lives fully present in each of us, we all have equal access to the Power For Good and we can all use it.
Women have been the leaders in our teaching since the very beginning. One early leader, Emma Curtis Hopkins (1855-1925), is credited with being the founder of New Thought by many scholars. I am in that camp. I believe Hopkins was the true founder because she clearly articulated the ideas of the teaching as religion and her writing is still taught in our churches.
Others say Phineas P. Quimby who learned about Anton Mesmer’s early hypnotism and experimented with the principles of mental healing was the founder, but although he believed in mental healing, he did not believe in organized not religion. It was his student, Mary Baker Eddy, who combined his mental healing techniques with religion and who founded Christian Science. Her churches are not considered New Thought.
Emma Curtis Hopkins was a former school teacher who was a divorced woman with health and financial problems. Hopkins studied with Eddy and split away to form her own teaching. Over a period of years, she built a wide-spread work and earned the title, Teacher of Teachers.
She taught thousands of people including the founders of the three major New Thought denominations; Unity, Divine Science and Religious Science. She also taught Anna Rix Militz who founded the California-based Home Truth and many others who founded large works at that time.
Emilie Cady was in Hopkins’s first class and Cady is author of the famous Unity text, Ten Lessons in Truth. Later Hopkins taught Unity founders Myrtle and Charles Fillmore . She also taught Malinda Cramer, and the other founder, Nona Brooks, learned from a student of Hopkins. Ernest Holmes, founder of Religious Science, studied with Emma Curtis Hopkins later in her life.
I have always been fascinated by Hopkins and her colleagues because they lived in a time when women were pushing for the vote and for equal opportunity. Most of these New Thought pioneers were divorced or widowed women who travelled from town to town, staying in people’s homes and teaching any beginners they could attract. They were truly very brave.
Some of them, like Hopkins, were charismatic enough to draw big crowds (as much as a thousand) and even start schools. Others labored in the vineyards with little notice, crisscrossing the nation by railroads and opening minds and hearts.
They were teaching philosophy and religion in a time when most women worked at uneducated, menial jobs and/or housework. They were harbingers of the New Age of Women. Some, like Helen Wilmans and Hopkins, were active in the Women’s Movement and others were simply active women.
Wilmans was active in the labor movement as well as creating a mail order books, lessons and distance prayer business in the town she built in Florida. She was hugely successful for a while and known as a political activist as well as a prosperity teacher. No one knows much about her today.
Emma Curtis Hopkin’s fame remains but people don’t know she taught leaders of the Suffrage Movement. Of the 22 graduates of in her first graduating class, 20 were women. One was Helen Wilmans. Two others were the very active, well known suffrage activists, Louisa Southworth and Elizabeth Boynton Harbert.
What’s more, Hopkins Metaphysical Association had a booth in the Women’s Pavilion of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair!
Over the years, I have heard many comments bewailing the lack of men in our churches (mostly from women). Almost no one comments about the wonder of having so many fabulous women leaders. We need to look at that and pay more attention to our history.
While the Christian Science and Seventh Day Adventist Churches were American religions founded by women during the same era, those leaders who the founders were male. Our leaders have included both genders throughout our history. The first president of the International New Thought Alliance was the noted writer and magazine editor, Elizabeth Towne.
Some people know that Quaker women played a leading part in the struggle for women’s rights but not many know that New Thought women were also involved. Other people associate the Unitarian-Universalist Churches with social action and that is certainly true. It is also true that they had very few women ministers until the 1960’s.
Both Unitarian and New Thought teachings are descended from the Transcendentalists and we both claim Emerson as one of our ancestors. I am also very proud to also claim early feminist, Margaret Fuller, first editor of the Transcendentalist magazine The Dial as my ancestor as well.
Unitarians and the Quakers have been well known for their social activism, while we have been quietly making history for the last century and a half. When I began studying Religious Science, the President of Religious Science International was a woman named Earlene Castellaw. Dr. Arlene Bump was president later. The Rev. Dr.Cathy Hearn headed United Religious Science for many years.
I believe New Thought people should be very proud of our women’s history heritage and make it known. I still have a few copies of a book I wrote ten years ago. I plan to rewrite one of these days and add more about these ideas and new facts. Meanwhile, contact me if you are interested. The book is called New Thought – New Woman, a survey of Women and Spirit from Goddess to New Thought.
Ask Yourself
Why was I led to this teaching?
How do I feel about a majority of women in my Center?
Am I proud of our New Thought history?
Do I have friends I want to tell about our history?
Sunday, Beautiful Sunday
Posted: March 14, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: changing your life, Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, metaphysical truth, New Thought, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Raymond Charles Barker, Religious Science, Science of Mind, spiritual practice, Sunday church attendance, Transcndentalists, Walt Whitman 4 Comments »
I am speaking at the Center on Sunday. Since I created 50 new talks a year for many years, I’m not nervous. I know that one way or another, I will say, “Your consciousness creates your life and you can change your consciousness.”
For example, when I retired I expected a life of leisure but I kept thinking of new ideas and saying yes. Now, I ask, “Where did my free time go?”
As we move up the ladder of life, things don’t always change quickly. For example, my life continues to attract work because I hold onto my love of work. We all have repeats of success and failure in areas of our lives and the question is whether the repeated experience is OK. We make the choice.
Our Positive Living Centers are devoted to helping people change the parts of their lives they want to change. The way we change our lives is to change our consciousness and spiritual practice is the simplest way to do that.
On Sunday, I will be as clear about that process as I can be because I know Sunday church is the start of spiritual practice for most people. There are many other opportunities but church attendance is usually the opening tool to lift up our consciousness.
What the speaker says on Sunday is important and I will do my best but my talk is only a small part. The decision to suit up and show up for church is the real starting point for consciousness expansion.Everyone who is there made a personal decision and their choice demonstrates an intention to have a better life. I discovered attending church made my week go better many years ago.
Even after I made a conscious decision to use Science of Mind in my life, I still had difficulty hearing the message. In the beginning I heard, “If you have trouble, it’s your fault.” I was so full of regret and guilt that all I could hear was blame. I must have heard something else however, because I kept coming back.
I was aware of my first real shift in consciousness when I found Dr. Raymond Charles Barker’s Power of Decision. The book was so clear that I believed I’d found the key to the kingdom. The idea that my ability to change my life began with my personal decision to do so made perfect sense to me.The message that it wasn’t God’s will but God’s response to our messages fit into what I knew about psychology and what I was learning in 12 Step programs.
Reading is a great spiritual practice. So are classes. I began to take classes and that really helped me let go of the past and look to a better future. Classes give you a chance to ask questions and get direct responses so they are very powerful change agents.
Classes challenged me to pay attention to my thoughts and helped me monitor progress. I could actually prove this stuff in my life. In the midst of a group of like-minded people, I found I could really see change in their lives. I reasoned if it worked for them it was surely working for me. The teaching began to seem less fanciful and more practical. I began to dream bigger dreams.
One major attraction for me to the New Thought teaching was that good old American value, Self-Reliance. I loved the Emersonian attitude of being free from conformity and trusting yourself. I also loved the idea of rescuing God from a human-like description and recognizing God as the Creative Intelligence in every aspect of Life.
As a literature major, the intellectual authority of the Transcendentalists was important to me. Since I already knew about Emerson, Fuller, Thoreau, and Whitman, I felt more comfortable with our teaching. And the Transcendentalist political action suited my beliefs.
We come to understand and use the teaching in a variety of ways. It has been my privilege as a teacher to see many students accept New Thought without doubt, almost from the day they arrived. More than one colleague tells me when he or she knew was introduced to Holmes’s writings it was immediately clear it was the Truth.
We are all different. My doubting Thomas attitude served me well in some ways. It has made me a thorough student and given me the ability to explain things well. It took me longer but I eventually came to a place of trust.
The Hindus tell us there are several paths to enlightenment. We know about Hatha Yoga, the physical path, but there are also paths of service, of love and of the intellect. In New Thought, we must find our own path based on our own consciousness.
Our individual consciousness is a collection of ideas, beliefs and emotions taken from personal experience and cultural influences. Many believe it also contains remnants of past lives. We are all unique individualized expressions of Life and so we all have unique consciousness.
My path to full acceptance of the teaching was based on the intellect. It was work but I had nothing more important to do. What is your path? And how do you discover it?
I believe that the best way to find techniques that help you expand your consciousness begins in your home church or center. Your will find like-minded people who share your interests. You will also find a bookstore devoted to the practice of consciousness stretching.
All centers offer classes with excellent teachers. Most offer workshops and activities that offer you chances to grow. Certainly, volunteering can help you open up in wonderful ways. Making the choice to help make the coffee can be a turning point in your life. Selfless service is priceless for expanding your life.
Wherever you are when you read this, I invite you to attend your nearest church next Sunday. Whether the speaker says anything you can believe or agree with or not, you will find opportunites there. You will find paths to changing your life by changing your thinking.
Once you begin to send lighter and brighter messages to the Universal Mind we call God, everything will become lighter and brighter. If you want to change, you can do it. If you want to celebrate what you have without listening to others, you can do that. You get to design your life with the help of the Power For Good in your life that you are always using.
Ask Yourself
What was your first step into belief in Science of Mind?
What would you like to change in your life?
What do you want to keep?
How might you begin or deepen your spiritual practice?
Blue Skies Smiling At Me
Posted: February 25, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: changing your life, gratitude, New Thought, perseverance, positive thinking, sobriety, spiritual wisdom 6 Comments »
I felt a bit down when I wrote my previous post, so I named it Moody Blues. In response, several readers sent me cheery notes. Some told me how much they appreciated me. Others told me about themselves and their lives.
I was pleased so many people found the time to send me a personal message. My “downtime” was only a momentary glitch and by the time I’d finished writing, I was all right again. Your notes and calls erased any residual thoughts.
So I thank you. I am truly grateful for all of you readers and for many, many other things in my life. I like to say thank you several times during the day because it keeps me on track. I try to start my day saying thank you and end it the same way. It does keep the blues away.
Expressing gratitude is always a good idea, especially when we are down and want to be up. Certainly, some days are better than others but we really can learn to be happy most of the time.
I learned about expressing gratitude quite a while ago and ever since, even my bad days are much better than my “good” days of the past . I can now laugh out loud about some of the things I used to believe.
For example, I used to believe that life happened at me. I thought my moods arrived because of events in my life. I now know that I am, to a very great extent, creating my life and my moods are within my control.
New Thought teaches us to look at life in new ways. We learn to release our negativity and turn toward the Light. We know that we can change our thinking and immediately lift our moods. We learn we can be happy when we pay attention to our thoughts and beliefs.
As we learn to be happy, we also learn to view our emotions in new ways. We discover we can control our thinking and lift our emotional state and that it feels exactly like moving from the gloom to the sunshine. Why shiver in darkness?
We also discover that moods don’t just happen, they are caused by triggers and we can usually avoid them. Last week I was happy when I left church but then I was hungry in the supermarket. I was also a bit tired and knew I would be alone at home. All triggers.
Many years ago in my 12 Step Program, I learned the word HALT. I was told that if I wanted to stay sober and be happy, I should not allow myself to get too Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. I have found that particular way of taking care of myself very useful.
These days, I can honestly say I love myself the way I am and I am willing to change. So on Moody Blues Sunday, I took care of myself quickly and quietly. I ate something and took a nap. Then I wrote a blog for my readers who are all friends in my mind. Life was immediately good again. Nothing but blue skies in sight.
Moods are not dark invaders swooping down on us out of nowhere. They are simply old habits of thought that can be changed. They are the result of choices we make when we are not paying attention.
Before we can switch a mood, we have to love ourselves enough to take care of ourselves. This is a lifelong lesson for some of us but it is possible. I remember the first time I tried looking in the mirror and saying, out loud, “I love you Jane.” I burst into tears – but after trying for a while, I got very good at that it. Practice makes perfect.
In the beginning, loving ourselves and taking care of ourselves can be a bit of a struggle. It is easy to work too hard. Easy to put other people’s needs ahead of our own. Easy to attempt to please others and ignore our own desires. None of these patterns is self-loving.
As you deepen your understanding of New Thought and learn that you are created in the image and likeness of God, taking care of yourself because you love yourself gets much easier.
You discover you were created as perfect, whole and complete. You can love yourself now, and you do not have to wait for improvement. How could you possibly improve on God’s handiwork? Just see yourself as God created you and it is a snap to love yourself.
Learning to love yourself as God loves you is a wonderful adventure. You can start by reading and taking classes. Use your center’s practitioner or minister for counseling if loving yourself and taking care of yourself seems to be an impossible or very difficult goal. Make your first step asking for help. These ways of thinking will truly change your life.
Ask Yourself
Do I love myself?Do I take good care of myself?
Do I want to release any old behavior?
SkyLark by Carol Carnes – a review
Posted: February 11, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: Big J. McNeely, Billy Holiday, Carol Carnes, changing your life, connection to others, Hunter Hancock, jazz, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, New Thought, Rose Parade, Skylark, social change, spiritual wisdom, Taffy's, The Lighthouse, writing books 2 Comments »
I just read the novel, Skylark written by my friend Carol Carnes and I am delighted and amazed at its depth and power. Creating a first novel worth reading is quite a feat. It is especially difficult for someone who preaches for a living. I was surprised at how good it was, although I’ve known Carol is brilliant ever since I first met her about thirty years ago.
She wrote the original book, Skylark, in a few long sittings back in 1997 and then she put it away. Then, more than ten years later, she edited it for publication. This is a very different book from her best-selling metaphysical book, The Way In, or her daily Science of Mind blog – cc1inlove@aol.com – that many of you subscribe to.
Skylark is fiction that takes place over a period of many years, jumping back and forth, from the Fifties to 1998. It traces the story of a very fascinating heroine, Harriet, who is an artist with a witty but sharp tongue. There are a lot of interior dialogs and many of them are laugh-out-loud funny.
The novel is not autobiographical but Harriet has a lot of Carol in her because she simultaneously makes you laugh and think. There is a whole cast of supporting characters, including Libby, her dead friend who was Queen of the Rose Parade, and Buddy, Libby’s black musician husband.
Like many first novels, it is a bit jumpy in time and setting. That makes it a little difficult to follow in places, but it is well worth reading. Not only do you get a fascinating look at growing up in the Fifties – just before Civil Rights hit the news, but you get a philosophical question and answer interior dialog that will delight anyone interested in New Thought.
Believe me, this book is not one of those simplistic New Thought semi-novels like Jonathan Livingston Seagull, The Shack, or The Alchemist. This is a grown up, fascinating novel that would delight any intelligent reader. There’s a lot coincidence, reminiscent of Dickens, in the plot. That might turn off some critics but in New Thought, we know coincidence is often how the Law of Attraction works so it didn’t disturb me. I don’t think it will bother any of you either.
I loved Harriet and all the supporting characters. It really is a delightful read if you like fiction. It is a serious book and the subject matter includes child sexual abuse, racial tensions, recovering adopted children, and women’s issues in the days before Betty, Friedian, Gloria Steinem or bra burning.
The book really is a “coming into ourself ” tale for the main character and many of us will identify with the heroine. Harriet has a compelling issue with being “seen”, and accepting success. I was right there with her on that one, as many other readers will also will be.
The glue of the story is the author’s love of jazz. Carol clearly loves her music and she knows every lyric and artist of that era. The pages are filled with references to The Lighthouse, Miles Davis, Billy Holiday and others. Her story is infused with jazz. Her writing style is like a jazz composition. Harriet even has a pet bird is named Coltrane.
It’s always a little scary to read a novel written by a friend. What if you don’t like it? What will you say? I truly liked the book and want to recommend it to you whether you can remember that era or not. It is a window on a time that people thought was peaceful and quiet. Actually, big, big change was right around the corner. Carol has it nailed.
Part of the reason I liked the book so much is that it brought back memories. I can remember when we listened to “race music” on the radio. I’d forgotten all about Hunter Hancock and his radio show but I listened to him in the Fifties. I had also forgotten names of artists like Big J. McNeely and some others who blasted their way into fame. We didn’t all listen to Frank Sinatra or Pat Boone.
I also loved reading about the 1950’s Pasadena days of old money and debutantes. I’m older than Carol but many of our memories coincide. There were several references to trendy clothing styles. When the girls in the book were wearing spaghetti strap dresses, I was the manager of Taffy’s Dress Shop at the Coconut Grove’s Ambassador Hotel. The spaghetti strap was Taffy’s signature style.
Carol also does a fine job with the New York City art scene at a much later time. Actually, her characters, issues and settings are all very authentic. It is a joy to read about a time that you lived in and find the writer knows what it was truly like. I hate reading about those days when the writer was born yesterday. Why shouldn’t they take a leaf from Carol’s book and write about yesterday?
Skylark is a great read, written by one of our finest ministers. If you read fiction, you’ll enjoy the book immensely. If you are a New Thought person, you will enjoy the philosophical discussions Harriet has with herself and her friends. If you are looking for another happy ending you may be surprised.
You can buy it from lulu.com or her website www.carolcarnes.com. $18.95.
Ask Yourself
Have I read any good books lately?
A Servant’s Heart
Posted: January 31, 2013 Filed under: General | Tags: authority figures, connection to others, Dr. Carol Carnes, Dr. David Walker, Dr. Ernest Holmes., Dr. Kennedy Shultz, Dr. Nancy Anderson, Dr. Raymond Charles Barker, metaphysical truth, New Thought, politicians, Raymond Charles Barker, Sarah Palin 1 Comment »
I was happy the actress Julianne Moore won a prize for the TV movie, GAME CHANGE last week. I thought she deserved it for making Sarah complicated rather than a cardboard celebrity. I still don’t know much about Sarah Palin and the only scene I remember is when she agreed to run as Vice President. She said, “I have a servant’s heart.”
That phrase, servant’s heart stuck in my mind as if it were a line in a song that repeats itself over and over, without permission. Do you remember, “you get no bread with one meatball”? That line has been popping up in my peculiarly unique brain for about 70 years.
The phrase, servant’s heart, must mean something to me since I still remember it. I suppose Sarah intended to convey the idea is that politicians work for the people and I agree with her on some days. Other days I just marvel at their actions.
Never mind Sarah. What I need to ask myself is what having a servant’s heart means to me personally. After all, I have spent most of my life as an educator, self-help writer, and minister. Whom or what have I been serving all these years? Myself? Others? God?
The answer has to be all of the above.
I serve myself because I am living up to my own personal potential in wonderful ways. I have the gifts and abilities and I love to use them. Work is one of the great joys of my life. I love to work and that’s the truth.
I serve others because I believe we all are connected and we can help each other on the journey to enlightenment. We are connected to each other through our spiritual natures. We are all travelers and we are all one.
People like me who have taken on the role of spiritual leader or Science of Mind teacher know that we can use spiritual law to change what we call our reality. Our work is to show the way to others, as we travel our own path to higher realization of our God nature.
I serve God because it is all God. Everything comes from Spirit and we are all connected in Spirit. Once we accept that God lives full power (even if not fully activated) in every one of us, then we know that anything we do to help ourselves must also help others.
We all serve God when we express love for ourselves and for each other. We are serving because that Creative Energy which we call God is constantly expanding and moving toward greater good. God expands through us because we are eternally connected to God and to each other. We are One.
That’s the Truth. The mystics knew it and people in New Thought know it. We are connected here and now on Planet Earth.
There are times when we may feel separate but that is not the spiritual truth. In Truth, there is no separation. What that means is exactly what philosophers and poets have been telling us for centuries. No man is an island…. Do not ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.
I may not always enjoy the idea but at the level of Spirit, Sarah Palin and I are One. We are sisters in spirit and this is true for everyone else on the planet. Despite the prevailing beliefs in our society, we really are all connected. There is no “other”.
President Obama gets kidded because he’s so fond of saying, there are no red states and blue states, and that we are one America. People may think it is just rhetoric or that he’s naïve but he is correct on a spiritual level.
Utah may vote one way and California another, but we are all connected. We say we are children of God. We must also be each other’s brothers and sisters. We are also the keepers of all our siblings at some level. And.. we also are separate individuals. We must lend a helping hand, trust God, and let each one discover his own path and her own power.
I may be a preacher or teacher but I don’t get to make you do it my way. My job as a teacher with a servant’s heart is to demonstrate my belief system by living my teaching as I attempt to show the path to others by walking my talk.
What that means in daily action varies from one New Thought person to another, just as it does for Muslims or Jews. I follow politics because I am connected and I believe I should monitor what’s going on. Some colleagues don’t open the newspaper. We are following our own inner guidance. We both have servant’s hearts.
Living life out of a servant’s heart can be a complicated undertaking. One of the biggest dangers is shared by politicians. A respected teacher can become so used to authority that she forgets she is actually just one more pilgrim on the spiritual journey.
Whether we are parents, teachers, ministers, politicians, or anyone in a position of authority, we have a responsibility to serve in integrity. We must retain our servant’s heart. We need to remember that we do not always know what is right for the other person. Each must find his own path and what works for me may not work for everyone.
People in authority are wayshowers. We need to constantly renew our personal spiritual practice and avoid judging others. We must lead with a clean heart. We must also be willing to change and grow because that is what we teach.
Anyone who has tried to live a life according to spiritual principles knows there is a delicate balance between following your individual guidance and conforming to your group. We need to stay grounded and not begin to imagine we have all the answers.
My prayer partners and metaphysical friends are precious to me. I trust them to tell me the truth when I ask. My family helps me remember who I am and where I come from. I need these relationships that help me keep my balance.
During these last few years when my health has not been as good, many people have helped me in many ways. One of the gifts of this physical experience has been learning to ask for help and admitting that I cannot do it alone. I want to serve others and I now realize the circle is not complete until I also allow others to serve me.
Having a servant’s heart and knowing we are connected to each other in Love is a wonderful way to live. I am grateful to this wonderful New Thought teaching and to Dr. Ernest Holmes. I am also grateful to some very “downhome” leaders who taught me not to take myself too seriously. They include Dr.Raymond Charles Barker, Dr. Kennedy Shultz, Dr. David Walker, Dr. Nancy Anderson, Dr. Carol Carnes and many others.
Ask Yourself
Do you have a servant’s heart?
Do you feel connected to others?
To God?
How do you keep grounded in Truth?
