Need to protect yourself better?

This quote arrested my attention and got me to wondering about abusive states of mortal mind I need to be more diligent in defending myself from...

"If you are constantly being mistreated, you're cooperating with the treatment."

 ~ Robert Anthony

Your protection from swine flu

With the onslaught of publicity and commotion about swine flu fears, aggressive measures being taken in schools and workplaces to prevent contagion, and daily reports of people suffering, reminders to spiritually defend thought from being influenced by prevalent concerns cannot be too frequent.

Keep your spiritual armor on!

A strong protection from swine flu is a spiritual understanding of your infallible health as a beloved and secure child of God. Your individuality as a child of God is wholly immune to swine flu. A spiritual idea of God can't get it.

When aware of the swirling fears about catching the flu, I remember the story of the three Hebrew boys cast into the fiery furnace, recounted in the Old Testament. The flames were fierce and wild. But the boys were not touched. They walked through the fire and came out without a single hair singed.

While in the furnace, the King noticed a fourth figure with them, a presence commonly identified as the Christ. The boys obviously stayed in such a heightened spiritual state of mind, that their spiritual mindedness totally neutralized any effect from those flames. Their spiritual mindedness protected them.

The same rule works for us today. Spiritual mindedness neutralizes all the germs of fear, worry and concern swirling about us coming from other people, the media, doctors and the government. In a right state of mind, those germs do not affect us. They have no impact on our thought, our health, the body, our well being. They are as nothing. Just like Christ was with those boys in the heated flames, Christ is with us wherever we go. Christ protects us. Christ defends us. Christ knows what to do to keep us safe and well.

So, have no fear of the "flames" leaping up today in the form of flu fears. They are powerless. They are nothing to fear. They are as nothing to the spiritually inspired consciousness.

Keep your armor of protection on. Stay spiritually minded. Pray for your own safety and well being. Pray for your neighbor's safety and well being.

In a right state of mind, we can walk out of this "furnace" of error without a single hair singed on our head--without a trace that anything happened in the first place.

Layers of unflattering error

I caught a segment on TV a few days ago about a young man who lost 450 pounds. They showed a before and after shot of this guy, and the difference in appearance was astounding, as you can probably imagine.


What grabbed my attention, though, was how strikingly handsome this man was at a normal weight. At 650 pounds, his innate beauty was very difficult, if not impossible to see, from a physical point of view.


I pondered the metaphysical lesson.


Covered under layers of fat is one way mortal mind tries to hide the beautiful man or woman of God’s creating, but there are many other ways cover-ups happen.


People can take on layers of fear, anger, disappointment, discouragement, pride, conceit, and other sins. And if allowed to grow, adding layer upon layer in thought, they soon hide the beautiful, humble, strikingly handsome creation of God underneath. It's not a physical cover-up so much as a mental one.


This ought not to be!


We must vigorously rebel against any tendency of the carnal mind to hide our beautiful spiritual character under layers of error, mental or physical.


I pondered what layers of error I might be laboring under that needed to be shed. I’ll keep those thoughts to myself! But you may have some layers you’d like to shed too.


When faced with a deformed picture of identity, reform and improvement is possible. God created each of us in the divine image, and the outline is a beautiful sight to behold.

Don’t let mortal mind hide your incredibly beautiful character and spiritual form!

Healthcare reform and prayer treatment

There was an interesting article printed in the Los Angeles Times today that highlights a wrestling in our society over the merits, value and legitimacy of treatment for health problems through prayer.

Three prominent senators inserted a little-noticed provision in the healthcare overhaul bill that would require insurers to consider covering Christian Science prayer treatments as medical expenses. I'll let you read the article yourself about the debate surrounding this provision.

In my own prayers, I pray that our country more largely recognizes the benefit of prayer. The present healthcare crisis is not primarily a financial one, but a moral and spiritual one. Our present system is crying out for a moral and spiritual overhaul that elevates the kind of healthcare people receive. And spiritual treatment is a viable and proven form of care.

Health is more than a medically manicured body. It involves living a spiritually responsible life, which spiritual treatment can help people find.

Millions of prayer-motivated people have proven the benefit of prayer to meet health needs over the centuries. We may all have plenty to learn about how to meet all health needs consistently and constantly solely through prayer, but the success to date and the benefits already garnered merit continued support of prayer-based treatment.

It certainly is monumentally less expensive than conventional medical care.

If everyone sincerely turned to God first before racing to the doctor or to the emergency room when a trouble developed, there would be far less visits to medical facilities and far fewer burdensome medical bills.

Prayer works. It heals. It brings huge benefits to society.

The future of Christian Science treatment is in no way tied to the outcome of a healthcare bill in Congress, but it would benefit our population to recognize the benefits of prayer and use it more frequently for healthcare needs. A provision in the healthcare bill recognizing the value of spiritual treatment could be a step in that direction.

Click here for article:

"Healthcare provision seeks to embrace prayer treatments"

Body image and losing weight

Here’s a new podcast I recorded for tmcyouth that was posted yesterday.


Taking a look in the mirror


That glass object in your room can sometimes be your worst enemy. It tells you if you’re fat or thin—good-looking or ugly. Click here to find out how to see your true image and shed off pounds of worry and doubt!

Learning patience by watching mothers

Sent in by a reader...

A man observed a woman in the grocery store with a three-year-old girl in her basket. As they passed the cookie section, the child asked for cookies and her mother told her "No." The little girl immediately began to whine and fuss, and the mother said quietly, "Now Ellen, we just have half of the aisles left to go through; don't be upset. It won't be that long."

He passed the mother again in the candy aisle. Of course, the little girl began to shout for candy. When she was told she couldn't have any, she began to cry. The mother said, "There, there, Ellen, don't cry. Only two more aisles to go, and then we'll be checking out."

The man again happened to be behind the pair at the check-out, where the little girl immediately began to clamor for gum and burst into a terrible
tantrum upon discovering there would be no gum purchased today.

The mother patiently said, "Ellen, we'll be through this check-out stand in five minutes, and then you can go home and have a nice nap."

The man followed them out to the parking lot and stopped the woman to compliment her. "I couldn't help noticing how patient you were with little Ellen..."

The mother broke in, "My little girl's name is Tammy...

"I'm Ellen."

It's okay to love yourself

tmcyouth.com posted a new blog I wrote for them this week, "It's okay to love yourself."

God didn’t make you grumpy

Do you ever wake up grumpy in the morning? Ever sit down for breakfast in a sour mood, sending all nearby neighbors in the opposite direction or make them wish they were sitting at a different table?


A depressed attitude is not a good place to be, and definitely not a necessary mood to entertain.


God didn’t make you grumpy!


God is your Mind, and that Mind is filled with inspired points of view, reasons to rejoice and gratitude. If you’ve not feeling inspired in the morning, then you just haven’t awakened yet. So, it’s time to wake up, to wake up to reality.


The reality is that life is spiritual. It’s not a series of events happening over time. It’s Spirit’s ever-unfolding goodness making an impression on your life through spiritual mindedness. To participate, it helps to stay spiritually minded, awake and alert to spiritual messages coming from God.

We can’t just roll out of bed half-dazed and aimlessly wander through our days and expect the results to be reliably fun and enjoyable. We need to put in some effort, some prayer and study, to stay spiritually minded and in mental touch with God’s goodness. That’s part of waking up in the morning. And it’s part of keeping ourselves in a good mood.


Waking up is not just opening our eyelids. It requires us to open our thought.


Open thought to what? To God, to good, to infinite divine Love!


We can’t stay in a grumpy mood if we’re doing our job of being receptive to God’s omnipresent love for one and all. The more we see how much God loves us, the more we love others. Love displaces grumpiness. One can’t be a dark sink hole and a bright ray of light at the same time.

You can choose to be a light.


So, no more grumpiness in the morning. Wake up. Wake up to reality, to God, and let your light of spiritual inspiration shine.


Put in the effort it takes to be a positive influence on neighbors, family and friends. It’s a much happier way to start the day.

In a recession but not of it

Have you heard the below quote before when a distinction is being made between eternal individuality at-one with God and the everyday experience of humans?



“We may be in the world, but we are not of it.”


I can’t put my mental finger on where it originated, but I think the same idea is applicable to the economic recession. We may be surrounded by beliefs of an economic decline, but we are not of it.


Elijah, in the Old Testament, foresaw a severe drought coming to his region. The Lord told Elijah to go to Zarephath and there he’d find a widow woman who would take care of him during the drought.

When Elijah arrived, the woman was destitute, with no money, and only a handful of meal left. She was preparing a last meal for herself and son to eat, and then figured the two would die from starvation. Elijah told her to prepare a meal, and that she would not run out of meal or oil to feed her family.


As it turned out, he was right.


God’s promise that the widow woman would care for Elijah was fulfilled. The home had plenty of food throughout the entire drought.


After I studied this story last week, I remembered the above quote and realized that Elijah and the widow's family were in a drought time, but not of it. They didn’t let their thinking fall to the level of want and fear. Elijah knew supply came from God, and he demonstrated it.


We can do the same. God loves us just as much as the widow woman.


Economic reports may forecast doom and gloom all around us, but we do not have to be of it, participate in it, or be adversely impacted by it. Our supply comes from God, just like the meal and oil came from divine Love for the widow woman’s household.


It seems miraculous to material sense how Spirit can supply human needs, but it does. Spirit is the fountain and source of all sustenance for God’s family of man.

“Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” Mary Baker Eddy

Anger not a healthy motivator

Have you ever resorted to anger to get your point across to another person? Perhaps significantly raised the volume of your voice and edginess of your tone to emphasize a message to a child? Ever gotten into an ugly argument with a teenager, spouse or co-worker?


Heated anger can feel so justified to the mind that is embroiled in hate, ill-will, resentment, and self-righteousness. It can feel so “right” to the mind that feels it has to “get it all out.” It even feels normal to people who are used to being angry on a regular basis. But it is not normal, definitely not natural, and rarely justified.


There’s one kind of anger that is not out of place at times—fury at the evils of mortal mind such as at dishonesty, deception, destructive sin, and their kin. But this is not the kind of anger I’m writing about.


I’m thinking about the anger that gets directed at people, rather than at vice.


Talk show hosts targeting specific individuals, leaders, and politicians with venom is one example. Workers at the office seeking vengeance, assassinating the character of a co-worker, or yelling at an underling or peer are others.


It’s important that we defend our thinking from exposure to outbreaks of anger viewed and seen in society. It’s not representative behavior to emulate or model.


God created us beings of love. It’s our God-given nature to see the good in another, honor that goodness, voice acknowledgment of it and show our respect for it with appreciation, care and gratitude.


Anger is not a healthy motivator of good deeds.


I’ve noticed this in raising teenagers.


More than once I’ve been tempted to get mad about something our teens have done, or not done, but in every case, I’ve learned that getting angry does not help. It might kick-jump the errant into rectifying the immediate mistake, but it doesn’t inspire them into long-run reformation. It makes them mad. And when they’re mad, they don’t think in terms of how they can be better individuals, do the right thing next time and avoid the mistake to begin with. They ruminate over how unjustly they’ve been treated,--at least from their point of view,--how their parents are not fair to them, don’t understand them, and are hard to get along with. And so, I long ago came to the conclusion that anger is not a positive motivator of long term good behavior. It’s destructive to happy and healthy relationships between two people, especially between parent and child.


Love and understanding is the motivator of good behavior.


Love inspires people to think better, acknowledge their mistakes, want to rectify them, and do a better job next time. Love opens mental doors to new possibilities, the very doors that anger would close. Love finds ways to get along with people. Anger burns bridges. Love looks for the good in another and capitalizes on it. Anger sees only evil and becomes a victim to it. Love figures out a solution agreeable to both sides. Blinded by its own self-righteousness and pride, anger doesn’t see another side to consider, even when it should. Love is the lubricant that keeps discussion going in a constructive direction. Anger is the brick wall that halts progress. Love finds a way. Love inspires a better way. Love works it out.


It’s totally doable to love without anger. It’s our God-given nature, and it bodes us well when actively indulged.