Portland Center for Spiritual Growth
Love
Love is the third of the Three Foundational Principles, the first being Truth, the second, Life. God’s power of Love leads us to our highest good. To realize (to make real) this Principle we must first be aware that God’s desire for us is happiness; that God sees the best in us and knows our potential. This is the greatest Love that can be bestowed upon anyone. To desire another’s happiness, to see the best in others, to realize others as important and necessary, is pure Love in its highest form.
God does not want us to be miserable. In fact, God wants us to love our work, have great relationships, be healthy, happy, free, secure and prosperous. The only thing that stands in our way of having that kind of existence is our lack of faith in God’s Love for us. Our doubt plays out in our negativity, pessimism, skepticism, and ill-will toward others (and often ourselves as well). Here lies that gift of free-will we received from God at our creation. We have the right to assume the worst and see the worst. We have the right to think the worst, and we have the right to wish the worst. Fortunately, living that way has no power. Negativity, pessimism, skepticism, and ill-will produce powerlessness.
Taking Inventory
The real Power of Love is accessed through Positivism, Optimism and Goodwill. We activate these by first getting in touch with our negative attitudes, pessimistic beliefs, skepticism, and ill-willed thoughts toward others. This requires Truth and a willingness to create Life instead of sucking the energy out of it. Using Truth, we take a good look at our attitudes and expose our negativity, pessimism, skepticism and ill-will to ourselves. Then we ask ourselves what we can give to the world in an attitude that feeds instead of feasts. If we find ourselves thinking negatively, we replace it with a positive thought. If we find we are pessimistic, we look for an optimistic alternative. If we discover skepticism, we recommit our faith in God's reality. And when we discover ill-willed thoughts toward others, we replace them with good-willed thoughts. Finally, we take action if need be. Wherever we have harmed another, we make amends. Wherever we have been apathetic or uncaring, we take steps to show appreciation. No one is claiming this Principle to be easy in its application. Like Truth and Life, Love takes willingness and committed practice.
The Results
We begin to Love ourselves in a healthy way. Our sense of self-esteem increases immeasurably. We begin to trust ourselves, and come to believe that the world is filled with great possibilities; possibilities that include us. We feel infinitely freer, cleaner and happier. Others like and respect us. Fear and insecurity become rare, and we know God’s unconditional Love is very real indeed.
