March 19, 1983
God is with you always. What you’re feeling of God’s presence is particularly intense at this time. You have all had recent experiences which relate God to your daily lives and bring you thereby to a firmer recognition of God’s constancy and love. We see each of you on separate paths in your journey toward a clearer vision of God.
Your concerns over the perception of another are understandable, for they also contain a fear of rejection for what you hold to be true. Your relationships with others involve not only tolerance but the need for lack of fear. There are those, of course, in life who might easily reject each of you on the basis of your beliefs, but such a reaction should never be a matter of concern, for whatever another may feel about you, you are still the same in God’s sight. You are still in the proximity of God’s light and love. So, in truth, you can never be rejected or denounced for what you believe in because that which is the eternal part of you can never be cast away. You are the same.
It is natural in life to be concerned about the opinions of others. One always enjoys praise; one always finds criticism to be difficult. But the difficulty can be greatly relieved when you accept the fact that those who find fault with your beliefs and ideas are in fact responding to those beliefs and ideas, but not to you.
There is no way in God’s creative universe that one soul can reject another, for criticism does not belong to the outpouring of the soul. The soul is a loving entity and where there is no criticism, love has a chance to flourish, and where there is love, there cannot be rejection.
Therefore each of you in your daily lives must proceed in a manner that you feel is ordained by God, in a way that reflects God, and not be concerned about the reactions of others. When you receive praise you must not be inflated any more than you should feel defeat with criticism.
It is for you to be stable, to achieve a kind of smoothness of emotional intensity and sense of self-worth that provide you with a stability to weather whatever comes your way. This steadiness, this ability to remain on course, to remain consistent, is a reflection of God’s intention for your lives and is evident to all around you, for humankind does not remain in a kind of emotional steady state, as life is full of tortuous turns and unpredictable changes of direction. But one who feels the closeness of God and God’s direction is much less prone to such waverings. God’s constancy becomes manifest then in stability. Likewise, each of you should restrain from the judgment of others. It is so easy to find fault with what another says or believes or does and to translate that criticism into a criticism of the person.
Each of you must be concerned about being noncritical with all with whom you deal. You may not approve of the way young children behave, but you do not reject the humanness of those children. Perhaps you say, “They are just children, what do they know, for they are still young and will get over it.” There are frequently excuses which you provide yourselves but which in the end provide acceptance of such children on some level. But how often do you provide yourself with a basis for accepting another fully, regardless of what is said or done? You may punish, yet still love. You may punish children, but recognize their humanity and still offer love. But when you punish criminals, do you recognize their humanity and still love?
These two examples are certainly extreme in their divergence, but the principle remains the same. You may recognize what an individual does or says or believes, but you cannot criticize the worth of that individual. If you trust others at all times as a reflection of your acceptance of that person’s worth, you are treating that person with love. Love is not blind, but it is accepting and ultimately nonjudgmental.
You must learn to treat all with whom you are in contact with such acceptance. Recognizing this, you then are no longer sensitive to the criticisms of others, no matter how intense they may be, for although you may be criticized, your response to that person is with love.
This is a very difficult lesson to fully achieve, and yet it is essential for your peace and for your interrelationships with others. God is not judgmental, and yet God can be disapproving, just as you may be disapproving of another and yet nonjudgmental of another’s worth.
There will be many times in the future when each of you is sitting in a position to evaluate another, and yet you must recognize the importance of evaluating what another does, but not that person. You must learn that no soul can judge another. There is no soul that is bad, that is inherently evil. There are souls whose development is more or less advanced, but we are talking here of stages of advancement and not retreat. You as individuals may choose to do things which you later regret, but your spiritual growth does not retreat, for growth is growth. When you take one step forward, you have advanced and there is no step backward. There is motion and non-motion but that motion is always carried forward.
If you accept this fact—that you can only move forward—then you can be freed from any remorse from having taken actions or having held attitudes which may draw your souls backwards away from God. That simply cannot happen, and you should rejoice in that recognition. It is comforting to know that you can only move forward. And since all souls have the ability only to move forward, there are no grounds for judgment, only recognition, only acceptance, only the sense of shared responsibility for mutual growth, for mutual progress, for mutual love.
Your lives are full of many activities which block your vision of God. This is natural and you should not feel remorse. But when you recognize that somehow your priorities are becoming misaligned with your perception of what God would choose for you, this is a time to take stock, to look more carefully at your life. It is a time to balance material and spiritual needs, to retune the vibrations of your life and its interaction with God.
Questions that you have concerning your life’s priorities are kinds of warnings from God which say in effect, take another look, reexamine where you’re going, and with whom you are, and whom you want to be. Do you live life as you honestly feel God would wish you to live it? Do you value those things above all that are really important? Are you concerned about appearance or substance? Do you judge when you should accept? Do you withdraw from others when you should embrace them? Do you look for aspects in your life that are ultimately of little importance? Do you actively seek God? Do you find ways of reflecting God or just telling people about it?
There are so many questions which one can ask, but these questions are essential for keeping your lives aligned in a way which provides meaning and substance and the nourishment for your spiritual growth. As such growth takes place, your human lives also become richer. If you focus first on the soul, the body will be bathed in that light. Your human lives receive strength from your spiritual lives, and your spiritual lives find progress as you continue through human expectations. The interaction is close and the balance is so essential for each of you.
Be willing to walk that extra mile with another. Be willing to quickly accept the validity of another human being. Be ready at all times to accept the need for another’s life as it is. The belief that another shares is important for that person at that time. You may not agree but you must accept. Be less sensitive to criticism and more humble in praise. Seek that true equilibrium of life which enables you to hold steadfast to your perception of God in all matters that come before you.
We bless you with God’s love and ours, and thank you for your prayers for us and for all other guides. You are truly blessed when you recognize the value of all human life. Your lives will continue to be rich and full and rewarding, bathed in God’s light and warmed by God’s love.
Amen.