2016-02-12-A Detour Can Be a Shortcut

Session

• Edited by Linda Abell

Lesson

“Is courage — strength of character — desirable? Then must man be reared in an environment which necessitates grappling with hardships and reacting to disappointments.” . . . 3:5.6.

Thought Adjuster: “Dear child, sometimes things go smoothly in your life and you feel that you are in the flow. At other times, life seems to resist you and fails to manifest your dearest expectations. Those times are hard to bear unless you can extract from them the soul nutrients that have been embedded therein to promote your spiritual growth and evolution.

“You have the saying that “some pills are hard to swallow.” Yes, some pills of your life experience seem to be of that type; they make you gag and leave a bitter taste in your mouth, making you wish that you would not have to ingest their bitterness. However, the bigger the pill, the more strength of character it will lead you to develop as it is your best Teacher in the art of self-mastery. To become a master over your small emotional self, you have to be placed in situations where difficult emotions arise that need to be expertly and swiftly dealt with and brought under your control; they can be overcome by your ability to live with awareness.

“A huge disappointment either causes you to leap forward in faith or to regress in self-pity. It is like a lion crossing your path and threatening to devour your sense of peace and self-confidence unless you approach him with unwavering authority and determination.

“Whenever you experience disappointment, put on your spiritual “night goggles” and examine the situation from that more enlightened perspective. What are the hidden gifts in that situation? How can you face it without losing your spiritual mojo — your Can-Do attitude? What should be your next course of action?

“In any conflict, winning strategies have to be devised. The skill of problem-solving requires creative thinking. Any challenging situation will lead you to become more re-source-ful. This occurs by connecting to the Source — the all-knowing Source.

“Turn within and ask for divine input as to the best course of thinking, feeling and reacting to the life challenges with which you are currently dealing. Recognize that no emotion can ever be dictated to you if you do not open the door for it to invade your emotional space unhindered. Rather than falling into depression and discouragement whenever things “are not going your way,” stop and ask your Divine Fragment, what is God’s way in that specific situation. You will then be able to align yourself with the solution rather than sinking in a state of unbalance that would require much effort to climb out of.

“Use each challenging situation as a stepping stone instead of a crushing stone. Therein lies your power and your victory. Once you climb on the stepping stone, you may get to understand the promises of the future and the blessings contained in the difficult situation. Roadblocks are not always blocking the way to the promised land. They may take you on an unforeseen detour but, after all, that detour could well turn out to be a shortcut toward more thrilling and so far unsuspected panoramas.”