Thoughts for the week:

April 3  PEACEMAKERS

If you should get a very strong realization of the Presence of God with you, it would make a very great and dramatic change in your character, so that, in the twinkling of an eye, your outlook, your habits, your whole life would completely change. Many such cases are on record, including cases of what used to be called “conversion.”

The great essential for success in obtaining that sense of the Presence of God is that we first attain some degree of true peace of mind.

Around the Year with Emmet Fox (Excerpt)

April 4

You cannot help others unless you understand the person you are trying to help. To understand the problems and temptations of others, you must have been through them yourself. You must do all you can to understand others. You must study their backgrounds, their likes and dislikes, their reactions and their prejudices. When you see their weaknesses, do not confront the person with them. Share your own weaknesses, sins and temptations and let others people find their own convictions. 

24 Hours a Day


April 7

When trouble comes, do not say: "Why should this happen to me?" Leave yourself out of the picture. Think of other people and their troubles and you will forget about your own. Gradually get away from yourself and you will know the consolation of unselfish service to others. After a while, it will not matter so much what happens to you. It is not so important any more, except as your experience can be used to help others who are in the same kind of trouble. 

24 Hours a Day

 

April 7  THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON SILVER

Next comes the silver (Biblical symbol for the second spiritual temptation - gold is the first: power over people). This stands for greed of money or money’s worth, for material objects that can be bought, and even for riches themselves. Or it may be that the offender is not interested in riches themselves but in their ability to give him a position of honor in the eyes of the world. He wants to be considered important and to have adulation or applause. Often he wants to be a “leader,” not because he has a message to give but to be important. He is the victim of egotism. Now this is a base and ignoble sin; an insurmountable barrier across the spiritual path.
 

Around the Year with Emmet Fox  (Excerpt)