Gloria to God:
Dear Father, there needs to be an 11th Commandment: "Thou shalt not hold yourself cheaply." No one knows his worth.
God:
If they knew their worth, they would know Me.
Gloria:
Karen said that confidence is You and Mary shining within.
God:
Since Mary and I are always shining within, I would add: "Confidence is the awareness of God and Mary shining within."
Gloria:
There is a saying that someone can wear a diamond around his neck. If he doesn't know it's a diamond and therefore the value, he has not gained what is his to gain. When he knows, he would even walk differently, wouldn't he! I mean, wouldn't I?
God:
And that is the confidence. It is interesting that the word confidence, meaning surety, comes from confide, to tell your innermost thoughts to someone, and to trust in that confidante.
Does that not speak of what is between us? You share with Me yourself in trust. Then comes a confidence that straightens up your posture and sweeps up your vision, your reach, and your heart until they burst their seams and you walk in Heaven with your feet on earth.
Yes, so walk with Me. You go where I go. I go where you go. And We are, in confidence, One.
A Course in Miracles, Introduction to Manual for Teachers:
"The role of teaching and learning is…reversed in the thinking of the world. The reversal is characteristic… The course emphasizes that…teacher and learner are the same…teaching is a constant process, it goes on every moment of the day.
"There are only two thought systems, and you demonstrate that you believe one or the other. From your demonstration others learn, and so do you. The question is not whether you will teach, for in that there is no choice."
Gloria:
Dear Father, will You comment on teaching and learning?
God:
First, you are all teachers and learners. There are no separate roles.
The real question is: Are you open to learning? Or do you try not to learn anything further? Have you made where you presently are your safety and thus dare not venture beyond its walls? Or have you jumped over the walls into the fields?
Odysseys are the stories of travelers. You are the traveler. No one is the innkeeper who stays in one place. All are travelers, nomads, wayfarers, explorers. The continent you explore is yourself.
Along the way you find travelers beside you or before you or behind you, and with each one, you explore yourself.
The continents you discover and rediscover are aspects of you. You slip into different consciousnesses as you explore. And with each continent, you are ennobled.
It is like you disbanded yourself, and here you find your shoes, and there your socks, and here a ring, and there a watch, all parts of yourself and your belongings. And you keep finding, and then you are whole, and yet still finding parts and pieces of the mystery you are.
You do not stay in one place no matter how you try. A child does not try to grow. He naturally grows. If he were to confine himself to a small space to repel the growth, he would know pain.
When you free yourself to grow, you will not have paid. You will not consider that you are losing something. You will see that you are furthering.
And that is how there is no loss. Leaving something behind you and going forward to another continent is not loss, unless you convince yourself so.
One step before the other is life. One glory after another is life. And always another continent and another ocean and another horizon and more of you.
Gloria to Mother Divine:
Dear Mother Divine, I take a moment and a breath to let the awareness of you come here.
Mother Divine:
And we sit and write in stillness and mirth. Here you are, sitting on a bed with a notebook in your lap, and you look out your skylight and see tree tops and sky beyond, and you write what I say, and all the while you know you are not sitting on a bed looking out a skylight even as you know you are!
Where are you, and who are you? These are the only questions in the world to ask.
Pick any science, any subject, and those are the questions sought underneath all questions.
Today, when you think of it, ask yourself, "Where am I? Who am I? What is the who-that-I-am doing to be who I am and to see who I am?" That is another way of reminding yourself to think of God. Remind yourself to think of God, and you will be reminded to ask, "Who am I, and where am I?"
And where are you if not in God's heart? And who are you if not His child?
Later…
Gloria to God:
Dear God, there are so many things I want to comment on from a letter of Karen's, and in the morning I'll be wide awake to do it. Meanwhile, what would You like to tell me tonight?
God:
Night is here. Dark makes it easier to close the eyes and sleep. Sun makes it easier to open the eyes and rise. And so, good night.
Gloria to Mother Divine:
Dear Mother Divine, what beautiful thing do you have to say?
Mother Divine:
Talk to me earlier than this when you are more alert. Now your eyes are heavy. Lay your head down and rest with God and me in your sleep.