Gloria to God:

Dear God, I woke up this morning with the words echoing: "God is my strength. God is my love. God is my being."

God:

Good thoughts to wake up with. True thoughts to wake up with. Much better than waking up with: "Do I have to get up? I want to sleep longer!"

Gloria:

Dear God, there is the expression: "What you see is what you get." But that isn't always true with people, and that must be what Karen means when she says that someone who is connected to You has only one side to them.

I met with a prospective client yesterday who said that sometimes his wife wakes up in the morning mad at him for no reason he knows of. He's the one who loves her, supports her, and yet she will sometimes talk to him in a way she never would to anyone else. A girlfriend who doesn't really mean anything to her gets the red carpet.

Before I sound too judgmental, I am no better than that wife. I have talked to my daughter in a way I never would to anyone else, and she's the one I love the most.

This was how it was in my family growing up. You perked up for strangers.

God:

Why do you think a wife wakes up and lets her nice husband have it?

Gloria:

She's mad about something.

God:

If she's angry about something, general or specific, what do you think it is from?

Gloria:

She feels thwarted.

God:

What would thwart anyone?

Gloria:

Something isn't going the way they want.

God:

They want control, a control they do not have and never can. They want to own. Even if they could gain the power they think they are entitled to, they would still be dissatisfied anyway.

Gloria:

An older woman who used to babysit Lauren told me how her grown son had been in love with a girl who did not come from a "nice" family. For that reason, the mother did not want her son to marry this girl, and she had enough influence with the son to break up the romance. Her son started drinking, and years later, while drinking, he fell off a railroad trestle and got killed. She said there wasn't a day that she wouldn't give everything to go back and have her son marry the girl she hadn't wanted him to.

God:

And that takes us back to judgment and control. There can't be one without the other.

What everyone wants is to know Me. Distance from Me is cause of all frustration. Closeness to Me is cause of all joy. Momentary pleasure is a kind of lie or broken promise. You may enjoy the candy bar, but you know you are soon left with nothing.

Dissatisfied people feel they have been left with nothing. They felt owed something and got cheated. This is their programming and has little or nothing to do with the person they take it out on, except that they are there.

Gloria:

Isn't a husband entitled to wake up with sweetness surrounding him?

God:

Yes.

Gloria:

Of himself, he would wake up good-natured.

God:

He is of himself.

Gloria:

God, I don't know how people live together in harmony.

God:

That is what you all are learning. Living together is the learning ground.

Gloria:

Why can't all the good-natured men and women marry each other?

God:

Then maybe one of them wouldn't be.

Gloria:

Okay, what then can a good-natured husband or wife do when their partner may not be?

God:

Perhaps she or he can give their partner some attention beforehand that might turn their thoughts away from anger. Perhaps the good-natured one can wake up and get out of bed before the partner. Or perhaps just knowing that the anger really has nothing to do with them will help.

The time will come when they will not be so affected by someone else's mood.

Gloria:

Dear Mother Divine, aren't personal relationships the hardest?

Mother Divine:

Well, they are the most frequent. And they are the closest at hand.

How precious is another soul entrusted to your care to be tended with tenderness on God's behalf.

How precious a moment to nurture another being's presence.

How precious to deliver to another soul God's love.

Here comes your little dog to be greeted with love. Just as tender as your Ginger's feelings, so are everyone's. She comes to you for love. "Here I am. Pet me. Give me love. Let me give you mine."

And that is what everyone is saying.

Ginger is more honest is all. More open. Preoccupied with little else but love, and so she purveys it.

You see her, and love comes to mind. Gentleness of greeting comes to mind. Sweetness of life comes to mind.

The little treasures that are yours. Your little dogs. Your daughter. The souls you know. These are the treasures of life. These are the treats of life.

You are feeling the littleness of all your purchases.

Collect souls, not things.

Reap for God. What pleases God?

Today remind yourself of the treasure of hearts. Look for that treasure. Be a collector of hearts.

Build bookshelves for them.

Say:

"My heart is big enough for all. My heart is my home, and that is where I welcome all. That is where I entertain all. My heart is God's. He gave it to me to stock with love. I count the hearts contained there like a roll of $100-dollar bills, like a movie reel, like angel feathers ruffling.

"The human heart is a container for love. Love enters but does not exit. It flows out, but it always winds back. Love does not escape from the heart. It returns there. The heart is home-base.

"The heart is a bird that cannot be contained.

"The heart always has room for more. It doesn't stretch. It just has more room. It cannot be filled up and stop. The heart runneth over. That is what it is for.

"It is a metronome that beats love. It pulses love and invites more love.

"The heart builds other hearts. It recognizes other hearts.

"My God, I am possessed of the treasure of a heart. You gave it to me from the heart of your love. You gave it to me with love for love. It is a pot of love you have given me to paint the world with.

"How grateful is my heart for itself. Thank you, my heart, for being my heart of God. Thank you for beating in my breast and calling out to others, 'Come here Come here. I am a way station. Come here.'

"And other hearts beat their refrain, and call to one another until the world is one great beating heart, hearts tripping over themselves to give love, to give more of their one heart to one another.

"What a miracle is love. Love ascends. It reaches the rafters. It goes up the chimney. It torpedoes to Heaven and bounces back with Heaven's love poured out for me and all the welcomers.

"Thank You, God, for the heart you have entrusted to me. I will use it. I will send and receive messages of love all day and all night.

"Love will be my name. Love Eternal will be my name, as it is Yours."