Gloria to God:

Dear God, I received a note yesterday, Thursday, from Joyce who learned how to do her own Godwriting just this past Sunday. She said:

"As I look over my Godwriting journal, I am amazed to find so much truth. The most important is: to take care of myself and to listen. The best part is that I see that God has been talking to me all along…

"Sometimes I recognize the blessings God has sent me, like the lady that I visit twice a week who has Alzheimer's. She teaches me: stay in the moment, for that is all you have with her. Every time I go there she asks me my name. That doesn't matter, for she remembers my face and seems so glad to see me…"

Dear God, would You like to comment?

God:

What is there to say? Joyce's note says it. I have been with everyone right along. It is no big thing to tune in to Me. You do it. Joyce does it. Anyone can do it. It is easy to do it.

It would be very hard for Me NOT to communicate with My children, so I should think, since you were made in My image, that it would be hard for you not to communicatge with Me. Life is easier with Me beside you than without. And like everyone else, I like to be heard.

The importance of listening. I want to say that Joyce is receiving My words with the innocence of heart that make a great receiver. She not only hears My words; she listens. She does not know better than I. She does not tell Me what she wants My answer to be. She simply asks and listens.

Sometimes I feel that My children see Me as a candy machine that doesn't work right. Maybe a candy bar, not the one you wanted, comes out. Or the candy you wanted drops down, but not fast enough. Or it doesn't have the taste you hoped for.

Better to be patient, as am I.

Know that the time will come when you put your quarter in, and you hit the jackpot. But, you know, you can't order the jackpot or demand it. Be happy with what you get as it comes along and wait to welcome more.

Gloria:

Dear God, why is marriage so hard?

God:

Too many expectations.

Gloria:

Why is it that two good people have a hard time living together?

God:

With expectations comes demands. With demands comes control.

Gloria:

It seems to me that the best in people doesn't seem to come out in marriage.

God:

Attention in the wrong places.

Gloria:

Dear God, but why?

God:

Because My children are learning to turn their attention away from what causes pain and towards what makes them happy.

Gloria:

My mother-in-law said to me once that sometimes marriage is so awful, you think you can't stand it.

I wonder, dear God, if we weren't three-dimensional physical beings, it would be a lot easier. If we didn't have our bodies, we wouldn't get hot and cranky. We wouldn't be rushing. We wouldn't get in each other's way.

God:

If you did not have bodies, you might not be distracted from Oneness.

But you are in the arena of the human body on earth, and what you have to learn is here for you to learn.

Gloria:

For example, right now I have a friend whose husband seems to prefer not to sit down at the table and eat with her and the children. She feels that she and the children are being slighted.

God:

The issues of concern here are not resolved by the husband's sitting at the table. His attention is his attention, and outside performance doesn't alter it.

It will be good for the wife to let go and let her husband be who he is in peace. She cannot make him into the father she craves for her children anymore than she can transform her own father into what he should have been.

It is better not to try to improve a spouse.

Gloria to Mother Divine:

Dear Mother Divine, what upliftment will you give us this morning?

Mother Divine:

What inspiration do you need?

Gloria:

About relationships.

Mother Divine:

Relationships seem rough, but this means they smooth the rough edges.

Marriage is co-existing.

The sun and moon co-exist. Earth and sea. Sky and clouds. Earth and sky.

The earth does not say to the sky, "Be like me. Think as I do." The sky doesn't say, "Hey, earth, change your colors. Be like me."

Marriages are not made in Heaven. They are made on earth. Marriage provides a structure, and structures of themselves do not give happiness.

Exchange of lovingness and acceptance gives happiness.

Serve God through marriage, and marriages will be fuller.

Husbands and wives are agents of God's love. Agents of God's love do not forgive so much as pay attention to what needs no forgiveness. Look to the good. It is there.

Gloria:

A Course in Miracles makes the point that a person is either giving love or asking for love.

Mother Divine:

What else is there to do?