Thought For Today 12/9/16

I'd like to share Lesson 344 from the Workbook of "A Course In Miracles." It is a beautiful prayer that really says it all; the most important job we have here on earth is to learn to forgive each other. Only then will we truly know the Father's peace.

Today I learn the law of love; that what I give my brother is my gift to me. 

This is Your law, my Father, not my own. I have not understood what giving means, and thought to save what I desired for myself alone. And as I looked upon the treasure that I thought I had, I found an empty place where nothing ever was or is or will be. Who can share a dream? And what can an illusion offer me? Yet he whom I forgive will give me gifts beyond the worth of anything on earth. Let my forgiven brothers fill my store with Heaven’s treasures, which alone are real. Thus is the law of love fulfilled. And thus Your Son arises and returns to You. How near we are to one another, as we go to God. How near is He to us. How close the ending of the dream of sin, and the redemption of the Son of God.

Schucman, Dr. Helen. A Course in Miracles (p. 1157). Foundation for Inner Peace. Kindle Edition. 

Why Are We Here?

A simple question, right? But not at all simple to answer for most of us.

I believe the following quote sums this up well, and, if nothing else can certainly serve as a starting point for those who ponder this thought often. Consider this:


"... we are here on earth to grow our souls, to open wider, to reach higher, and to stretch further. Our goal is to soften where we would normally constrict, to loosen when we would habitually tighten, and to extend where we would usually hold back. Each and everyone of us has so much to offer, and the world needs what we have to give."
M.J. Ryan, "The Giving Heart"