Lesson 213
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
(193) All things are lessons God would have me learn.
A lesson is a miracle which God offers to me, in place of thoughts I made that hurt me. What I learn of Him becomes the way I am set free. And so I choose to learn His lessons and forget my own.
I am not a body. I am free.
For I am still as God created me.
Review
As I accept that everything is a lesson God would have me learn, I no longer fight my life or resent the lessons it offers. I no longer think that the lessons define me. I used to think that when I was faced with a challenge it meant I had done something wrong, thought something wrong and I felt guilty. Now I see it as a gift. I might find it difficult or unpleasant, but as I remember the purpose of these lessons, those thoughts of I like or I don’t like fall away.
One day, I had to do a prep for a colonoscopy and that was fine. I used to hate stuff like this for a lot of reasons, but I don’t really care now. It’s just what is happening and even not eating all day was not a problem, the hunger coming and going but not actually disturbing my day. I didn’t have a problem until that evening when I had to take the medicine that would prepare me for the procedure.
I got very intent on following the directions and doing the rest of the prep perfectly so that this all worked well the next day. Like with any other thinking that I focus on, it came with this whole story of forgetting something or messing up the plan in some way. I would notice how tense I was, realize what I was doing, and stop. Then I would do it again.
What happened is that in all this obsessing about getting it right, I failed to notice that I wasn’t scheduled for this weekend, but next weekend. It was a comedy of errors and I could have berated myself and felt stupid and guilty but I didn’t. It was a lesson God would have me learn. It had been a while since I fell into that ego thinking trap to the degree I did this time.
I remember now why I don’t want to do that anymore. Not only did I put myself through that whole procedure unnecessarily, but I also robbed myself of peace and that was the greater loss. Hopefully, that is a lesson finally learned and won’t need to be repeated. What I love about it is this. I saw what I did. I recognized the lesson it provided and I found the humor in it.
Each morning I read the lesson, and then I read what I wrote in the past. It is very interesting to see what is the same and what has changed. Then I sometimes write something new, especially if there is something going on in my life that needs this lesson to help me make new choices. Writing about it with the Holy Spirit is very healing.
Past Entry
Lately, I have had so many lessons. I know they were there all along, but I used to think of them as problems. Now that I recognize them as the loving opportunities that they are I am so grateful. I still pull my hair out while they are going on, but even then, there is a small sane voice within my mind that reminds me not to despair but to stay with it. In the end, I will rejoice if I just stay the course and do what I need to do.
I had a good lesson recently with my son. He was going through some changes in his life and I was worried that he was making choices that he would regret. I had a couple of days of anxiety but I knew there was a miracle behind the lesson if I continued to go to the Holy Spirit with it. The ego wants to solve the problems and that is, of course, the problem. The ego can’t solve anything because it does not know anything. I am not going to thrive under the ego’s direction because the ego does not love me.
The Holy Spirit gently led me through the situation, waiting patiently for me to return my attention to Him when I wandered over to the dark side for a while. Each time when I returned, the Holy Spirit was there waiting for me, and we just took up where we left off. As a result, I am learning not to fear the ego part of myself. It is just a thought system I chose to look at for a while. I am not going to stay there because it is not my home.
What does this do for my son? Well, my son has the Holy Spirit within his mind just as I do. He does not need my help. He may, however, notice that I have an effective way of living and that I am mostly very happy and peaceful. If so, he may want this for himself. This is my gift to him. He can accept my gift. Or he can refuse it. He is the Holy Son of God, as am I. We are perfectly free to be happy – or to be miserable.
Holy Spirit, thank You so much for helping me to exchange the problem for the miracle. I had a thought that was causing me pain and giving it to You I received a miracle in its place. How incredible!
I have had many lessons with my children, and though my choice to believe the ego thoughts has caused me a lot of unnecessary suffering, the process of returning to peace has been the same. And every time I have chosen God over ego, I have experienced the miracle and more healing has occurred. This healing is cumulative, and so each subsequent situation is easier to navigate, less painful, and surrender to the Holy Spirit more quickly chosen.
Regina’s Tips
The most effective way to heal is to take advantage of every upset in order to practice forgiveness. In the following audio, I demonstrate practicing forgiveness on an upset that came to me while viewing a post in Facebook. It is an example of not letting a single upset pass by without forgiving attention. The audio is about 20 minutes long. (If you are short on time, you can listen to 15 minutes and skip the song at the end of the audio.)