ACIM Distortions of Miracles Impulses P 2. Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful and the holy. Do not forget this.
ACIM VII. Distortions of Miracle Impulses, P 2
2 VII. Distortions of Miracle Impulses, P 2
2 Child of God, you were created to create the good, the beautiful and the holy. Do not forget this. The Love of God, for a little while, must still be expressed through one body to another, because vision is still so dim. You can use your body best to help you enlarge your perception so you can achieve real vision, of which the physical eye is incapable. Learning to do this is the body’s only true usefulness.
Thus far, what I have learned here in this first part of the Course is that I am a child of God, created in His image. Thus, I am a creator as well. I create as God creates, that is, as an extension of what I am, Love. Or, as stated here, I am created to create the good, the beautiful, and the holy. This is what I am to remember.
Because I have chosen to experience separation, my vision is too dim to create in this way, and so for now, I express this love of God from one body to another. I do this until vision has increased. I do this through enlarging my perception and learning to see, not with the body’s eyes, but with true vision. Another way to think of this is that I do this through learning to perform miracles.
A Dress Up Party
Here is an example of what this looks like to me in my life. Last night I spent the evening with my daughter, Susan. We have a regular “date” for Monday nights, and sometimes we meet at a restaurant, but often I cook supper at my house, and that’s what we did last night. We ate supper and shared our life stories. Then she sat with me as I packed for the coming week, and it turned into a “dress up” party.
Susan has an artist’s eye and is very creative. She helped me to put together some outfits differently in a way that would never have occurred to me. It was like going shopping and being surprised with what I found but better because I never left my room and I didn’t have to spend any money.
She also helped me go through some of my clothes and decide if they looked good on me or if I should give them away, which was very helpful because I have a hard time deciding. Sometimes I become confused about what clothes are for and keep them because I don’t feel I got my money’s worth or because I paid too much to admit I don’t really like them. We laughed as Susan pointed out I have a very complicated relationship with my clothes.
A Complicated Relationship
I told her that, obviously, I needed to forgive these clothes and my relationship with them because there was entirely too much guilt involved. It was a very light-hearted and humorous exchange, and yet, it was also true and an example of guilt coming forward so I could forgive it. It was also an example to me of how easy it is to enlarge my perception when I have one unified goal. My goal is to forgive the world and awaken to the truth. So even a fun evening ending with an off-hand remark becomes a way to do that.
Susan and I have always loved each other very much, but for a long time, my relationship with her was like my relationship with my clothes; it was very complicated. There was a lot of guilt in the relationship, which kept me from fully enjoying her company. This was true of all my relationships, not just the relationship with Susan. As long as I believe in guilt, it will show up everywhere.
The guilt showed up as a response to my belief that I made mistakes raising her. I projected guilt onto the relationship in many ways. I would say something to her and watch her respond. And because guilt was in my mind, I would perceive her response as a judgment of what I said. I loved her and wanted to be with her, but it was hard. Because I was a regular projecting machine, I saw Susan as the problem. I told myself that she just was hard to be with because I never knew what was going to set her off.
I had it Backwards
It’s really funny now to look back on that and see how turned around I had it. Everything I saw in her was actually coming from my own mind. When I thought she was hard to be with, it was actually me that was hard for me to be with! As I forgave myself and forgiveness became the way I live, my perception of Susan and everyone else shifted. My perception expanded, and my vision changed.
Now even if Susan were to respond with apparent judgment, it does not trigger anything in me. I know that it is about her, not about me. Because I know this, my reaction is more loving. I don’t need anything from her, so I don’t expect her to be in a good mood all the time. And if she is not in a good mood, it doesn’t affect my feelings about myself.
This healing of my own mind makes a whole different experience of being with Susan. I know that this change is about my expanded perception because Susan has not changed. She is the same delightful person she always was. It’s just that now I see her perfection clearly because forgiveness has purified my vision.
If you would like to read a short paragraph I wrote on Special Relationships, CLICK HERE.