Angry Birds

Have you played the game Angry Birds? It's filled with different situations where graphic birds try to blow up green pigs. Silly, I know, but it lead me to think about how we can pray.

The targeted pigs appear to be protected by glass, wood, and stone fortresses, often very difficult for the little birds to penetrate. While playing the game with an eight year old little boy, we discussed the tactics he should take when launching the attacking "angry birds," in order take out the fortresses and earn points by blowing up the taunting pigs. We came up with specific ideas and they worked!

It came to me that this was a good example of how to pray about taking out the green pigs of mortal mind. We don't need to start praying in a massive launch of scattered prayer, but instead, we can be lead to pray logically and thoughtfully about how to counter any entrenched, stubborn, or lingering lie about ourselves or anyone else. The right idea will come to us through focused, specific prayer, because we can see any dire situation as God sees it. Untrue. Not impenetrable. There is no power apart from God, and that power is laser-like and swift to reveal the nothingness of mortal mind, error. The birds of our prayer can easily and successfully blow up those unreal green pigs.

Our Dear Dog

Was clearly not feeling well. She hadn't been eating normally, but she was still her loving self. We put her to bed, knowing the Truth about her, that she was a beloved creature, a pure expression of Love. About one in the morning, I awoke and went to her room downstairs to check on her. The picture was alarming. I tried to make her comfortable, and then I began to pray big time. I began by seeing her as God sees her, perfect, complete, and a delightful expression of joy. The love she expresses for everyone couldn't be dimmed or taken from her. Her real identity is spiritual, untouched by the picture before my eyes. I prayed until I felt calmer, then I went back to my bed to pray some more. Every time I awoke, which was often, I returned to my prayers, knowing God was in control, until I was able to feel calm again. Fear tried often to creep into my consciousness, but I refused to succumb. The evidence was false, and I wasn't going to buy into an untrue picture.

The next morning, she greeted us with her normal happy demeanor,and the ugly physical picture disappeared. She was completely happy and well.

The Child of God

The newspapers the past few days have featured the photograph of a well-known "terrorist" who was killed in a US military maneuver.

This individual clearly saw himself as outside the law and, as is the case with all sin, this carried with it its own punishment. Sin and punishment always travel together, you can't one without the other. There are many different definitons of the concept "sin". One is:  to miss the mark.  Another is: to break the First Commandment. When we miss the mark, aren't we letting something else beside Love, Truth, Principle, guide our actions and therefore, be god to us? 

However, it is important to remember that what we accept as true about a man becomes our reality. Jesus never called a man by a false, sinful name.  He knew the shortcomings of the prostitute, the tax collector, the doubters.
When a leper stood in front of him asking for a healing, although everyone around him knew and saw a man that was a leper, Jesus clearly was seeing only the dearly loved son of God. This view of him, healed him so everyone around could also see God's pure man.

We must not be fooled into believing false lables under anyone's picture. God never made any such man. It is a picture of a counterfeit, a distortion of God's creation. We see what we believe. And we get what we see.

PROGRESS

In a sermon titled "THE PEOPLE'S IDEA OF GOD",  Mary Baker Eddy wrote, "Every step of progress is a step more spiritual."


Sometimes we worry that we are making a wrong decision. A Sunday School student recently asked me, "How do you know you are obeying what God wants you to do, instead of willfully deciding to do what YOU think you want to do?


Prayer for me means lots of listening. God knows what we need and what will be best for our progress. He is always guiding us and if we get quiet with our questions, we will be able to discern His guidance. The Bible tells us, "Be still and know that I am God." (And you are not! LET God show you the way.)


I love the advice I find in Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures, the Christian Scientist's textbook. When faced with two decisions, neither of which seems the absolute perfect choice, just always choose the better one. This way you work your way up to a perfect solution a step at a time. If we mistake our way and make a decision that we think, looking back, may have been a mistake, trust that God is opening the way for us to be in our right place. Sometimes there is something to learn on the way!