Just when you think you have subdued your ego, it raises its head and strikes again like the snake in the grass it is.

You don’t want any more ego, and yet, when it arises, you give it supreme importance. You let it make your day or ruin it, depending on the course it takes.

Are you to be at the mercy of your ego? Is your ego mightier than My Will? My Will for you is happiness. Ego would dispute that. It builds you up, and it lets you down. It smoothes the playing field. It reduces everyone to the same ashes. Like whiplash, ego takes you by surprise.

It lets you think you have vanquished it, and then it comes full-force, laughing all the way, laughing at how insignificant it has made you feel. It picks on you and makes sure that there are outward events to support its ploy. Ego struts its stuff in order to get you down. The only reason ego ever puffs you up is to knock you down.

Ego wants to reduce you to its own size. How easily you fall into its clutches.

Ego tells you how the world views your unimportance. Ego twists and turns its knife, making you feel aggrieved. The world did not honor you today. It made you small. That was ego at its best, trifling with you, cutting little nicks out of you, making your lower lip tremble.

How ego has its way with you. It dances on your shoulder and scoffs at you. It has a good laugh at your expense. Meanwhile, you are distraught. Your ego got piqued. No royal carpet was laid out for you. What do you need it for, beloveds, when you have love and life and God? Where does ego get the right to muck up your life, make you feel small, undervalued.

Ego is such a parasite. It feeds on your self-worth. It plucks your sense of self-worth like a chicken and removes all your feathers. In truth, ego removes itself. Ego really knows how little it is worth, and its sense of unworthiness rubs off on you.

The attributes of ego affect how you feel, but they do not affect your worth. Let the world throw stones at you or ignore you altogether, and what does that have to do with you? Know ego for what it is, and do not be cowered by it.

Ego would make you a victim. It tells you that you are not respected. But you are respecting ego too much. You give your power to ego when it strokes your vanity, and then you feel powerless when it jabs at you. Ego puts your shoulder to the mat, and ego cries Victory while you dissolve into little bits of yourself.

Hurt ego is nothing but pin pricks, beloved little mosquitoes that bite your skin. You do not have to do ego’s bidding. You do not have to turn red in embarrassment or shame or anger. You do not have to turn red at all. Laugh at ego laughing at you.

Ego is fragile glass. It sometimes goes under the guise of spun sugar, but it is glass that crackles like ice. Ego would like to harden your heart, but you must not let it. Do not let ego eat away at your heart. Lift the skirts of your heart above ego. Ego may hurt your feelings, but it does not have to touch your heart.

Ego would undo you, beloveds. It would shatter you like the glass it is. See through ego. It is only ego. It has nothing to do with you, beloveds.