Gratitude swells your heart. Less than gratitude depletes it. But give not so much gratitude to other people because that puts you in the position of owing. Gratitude goes to Me. It is good to remember that because it keeps you neutral.

You owe no one anything. It is well to stop thinking that you owe. You are under obligation to no one. When you surpass this thought, then you will no longer feel that another is obligated to you. When you surpass this one thought of owing, then you will no longer be in servitude, and individuals will no longer exert power over you. Their ego will no longer influence you.

You may think no one exerts power over you, but you give power to others constantly. The power and the glory are Mine. Yet you exalt others. You think they have something to do with you. You think they have the power to ration you to yourself. You give them the authority to incur value on you or to take it away. You think they are a tailor who fits a suit to you, and they have authority to take the measure of you.

Do not give away yourself so much. You fool yourself because you give yourself for naught.

You belong to no one but Me. I have say over you, no one else. Do not attribute to others what they do not have.

All the regard you give to others' opinions, give to Me. You have made other people your idols. That must be so or you would not be so affected by their thoughts. Nothing concerning you depends upon their thoughts. Their thoughts are meaningless. Their negative thoughts bequeath no more to you than their positive ones. Their thoughts have nothing to do with you. Their thoughts are their thoughts, that's all, but My children tend to see others' thoughts as sacrosanct. You let others' thoughts add to you or take away from you, that you are more, or you are less, depending upon how someone sees you at the moment.

But that is judging yourself as one who has little merit on his own, and that is far from the truth of you.

And, in the same vein, that is how you judge others. Whenever you judge, you are viewing through the world's eyes and not Mine. Better to look through My eyes than all the eyes in the world.

Despair comes from looking at life through the jaded eyes of the world. You must know that by now.

Have original thoughts. Have thoughts in freedom. Free yourself from others' thoughts. Free yourself from your own. You rehash and rehash your thoughts. They are old.

There is an expression: "Who put that thought into your head?"

That is a wise expression. Someone put useless thoughts into your head, and it was not I.

Where do your thoughts come from? Who put them there? Where have you heard them before? Who says them? I ask you now, who put those thoughts into your head?

You are often mimicking what someone uttered long ago in a passage of time. Their thoughts were irrelevant then, and they are irrelevant now, and yet you adhere to them. Now release yourself from others' thoughts and the sway they hold over you. And release others from your thoughts of them as well.

Casual thoughts are casual thoughts. They are not significant to your life. They are not true gold. You know how gold makes you feel. When you feel less than gold, you have accepted counterfeit. Less than truth does not serve you. Know the truth of you now, and relinquish the lesser thoughts you have adopted from the imitative world.

Your life is not to be measured in how the world reacts to you. Your life is not dependent upon others' estimations of you. Nor is your life to be spent solely in responding to others' estimations. How much has your life been a response to a grade put upon you?

Another's opinion is not meant to be the hand that rocks your boat.

How far can you go when you are at the mercy of others' thoughts in regard to you or anything? How far around your course can you go?

Find out what is meaningful to you and keep it in mind. Do not let your ideas be dislodged so easily.

Even when it comes to choosing a color fabric for your living-room, you can be onslaughted with opinions, and how much do the opinions mean? It is easy for someone to toss off an opinion which is only their thought of the moment. However qualified they may be, they are not you. You know more about you than anyone else. Depend more on what you know and less on others' choices for you.

What are experts but those who have strong opinions and reference for them? But even interior designers have different opinions. They do not always see eye-to-eye. Why should you bank on anyone else's thought to the degree that you do?

You grew up with experts. When you were a child, everyone knew more than you did. But now you are no longer a child, and you know you were not always fed the truth. The intent of the people who surrounded you may not have been in question, or it may have been. But now you know that everyone has his own agenda, and his own ideas to prove or have seconded. When you bounce to someone else's idea, you have reinforced them, but not yourself.

No one knows more about the soul of you than you do. No one can listen to your heartbeat as closely as you can. And yet you listen so closely to others' hearts and minds.

Be strong in your truth today. You are a viable valuable Human being. I created you this way and not another way. I am not telling you to be headstrong. I am telling you to listen to your own heart song. Consider your thoughts and feelings as valuable as someone else's, that's all.

Ask yourself what you want to spend your life on. Your answer cannot be the pats and pans of others.