The universe unfolds from the depth of your heart. Feeling is everything. This is why the quality of your thoughts is so important, for your thoughts tell you how to feel. Your thoughts can make a plant thrive, or your thoughts can shrivel it. Your thoughts can do the same to a child, make the child blossom or make him close up. Your thoughts do the same to yourself.

This is why you want to read what uplifts you. This why you want to be with people who uplift you. This is why you want to be with Me in your awareness.

You say you want to be happy, yet you find reasons not to be. You let the world affront you. You are offended by it. Raise your opinion about yourself, and you will see less occasion to be offended. It is like you set a certain number on your cell phone, and then that is the number that you call and receive from.

From this day forward, do not complain about anything again. When you set your dial for complaint, the phone doesn't stop ringing. It rings off the hook.

It is like you are the host for a great party. What are you going to serve your guests? You will prepare food desirable to eat. You wouldn't serve tainted food. And yet you will serve yourself and the universe and all its guests weary warmed-over uninviting thoughts.

You may say you can't help thinking whatever you think. I know it seems like that, like your thoughts are thrust on you. But you don't have to buy them, beloveds. If someone were to offer you old raggedy clothes, you would say, "No, thank you." You would not feel obliged to take them with you.

Today, if an unhappy thought comes to you unbidden, turn it upside down. Hear a different message. If it tells you that you are unworthy, say genially, "Listen, buster, God says differently. I will stick with God. God says I am not only worthy, but that I am worthiness itself. God says I am in His heart, and that I am His beloved. Unworthy thought, I don't know where you came from, but I do know you don't belong with me. I have the choice of what flags I hang outside my house. I have a choice of where I hang my hat. I have a choice of what thoughts I harbor, and which thoughts I silently remove. If you want to be a thought of mine, you had better change your tune. Only thoughts worth having are welcomed here. Only thoughts that bless can stay here. It is up to me whether you can stay or not. If you are my friend, stay. If you are not my friend, if you do not have my best interests at stake, then here is the door, and I bid you adieu."

If you want to take a-hold of your life, then take a-hold of your thoughts. From your thoughts all feelings flow. Life follows your heart. Be tender-hearted. Think tender thoughts.

Consider that your thoughts flow to Me. What sort of thought would you like to send to Me? Just keep Me in mind, and you will respect yourself more, and bidden thoughts worthy of a child of God will come. And they will multiply. And the world will flourish in the sunlight of your thoughts.