[acimlessons_list] Review IV, Lesson 147 - May 27

[Sue Roth]

Review IV, Lesson 147 - May 27

"My mind holds only what I think with God."

(133) "I will not value what is valueless."

(134) "Let me perceive forgiveness as it is."

PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS

See Review IV practice instructions.

COMMENTARY

Let me, today, look at the things I value and reconsider them all. Why am I
doing this particular thing? What is it I am valuing here? The things we
value are often quite foolish when we look at them. For instance, when I
have begun to experience the nourishing warmth of true intimacy in
relationship, nothing seems worth the closing off of that warmth. I recall
reading about a fundamentalist church that split up over the issue of
whether or not it was sinful to plug in a guitar. How, I wondered, could
anyone value <anything> like that enough to shut out from their hearts
people who had once been close friends? So many relationships break up over
issues that seem just as trivial.

Forgiveness sees that nothing is worth shutting another child of God out of
my heart. We have so many absolutes in our consciousness, things we consider
more important than love, more important than unity, more important than our
own peace of mind. Have I come, yet, to value peace of mind above everything
else? Have I come to the point where anything that interferes with the flow
of love through me is quickly discarded?

We need to become aware of the source of our own pain. We ache when we close
down our hearts. We ache when we refuse to forgive, when we latch on to the
wrongs that have been done to us and fondle them over and over, refusing to
let them go. "Love holds no grievances" (W-pI.68.Heading). Forgiveness is a
gift to myself; it is a release from my own pain. What am I valuing above
the free flow of love, the warmth of union with my brother or sister? Let me
choose to no longer value this valueless thing, and choose to forgive.

Let me take five minutes this morning, and five minutes tonight, to open my
mind and clear it of all thoughts that would deceive (W-pI.rIV.In.5:2). Let
me brush aside lesser values, and remember that my mind holds God's own
thoughts. Let me value these thoughts above all else. Let me rejoice in the
congruence of my mind and God's Mind, and recognize that this blending of my
mind with God's, this sharing of His thoughts, is all that is truly valuable
to me.