Self-Respect and Giving, Part II
Continuation of God's answer to Tina from the January 31, 2000, Heavenletter…
God to Tina:
When you are a parent, being a good one does not mean to always put your child's wishes ahead of your own. When your wishes coincide, good. When self-respect and giving coincide, good. When they don't, maybe it is your guidance system saying, "Time to say no." In a yes way.
When your self-worth is not in contention, you will probably do many — what the world calls — noble things. But you will not be being noble. You will be right where you are. And what the world thinks will not matter at all to you. What your heart feels will matter to you.
Tina, when giving increases your belief in My care and support for you and everyone else at the same time, and it feels good to you and you feel enriched by it, then by all means continue to do so.
There are people to whom it never occurs to do something for someone else. Or, if they do, it is not without their being something in it for them. For those, it is good for them to consider doing something for another for the pure joy of it.
There are others who have been taught and learned to put others before themselves so inalterably and so much to their chagrin, that for them it is good to think a different way and try that out.
A whole range of action. So much to choose from. Live your choices rather than think them. Be them. Let your choices come from your truth and not from a supposed better.
The more fully you are integrated with Me and the Truth of love, you won't even think in terms of giving. It will all be being. Pure being is a surrender of all that is not pure being. In truth, you have nothing to give, for all has been given. Receiving and giving will be the same oneness. When your heart is full, it can only expand. Inner and outer will be no difference.
I said to aspire to what you believe. Aspire is like a breath out. You aspire to what inspires you. It is not an effort. It is not forced will. It is not straining, and so it is not even achieving. It is being. If all love is Mine, or from Me (I don't hold on to it), and there is nothing true that is not of My love, what is there for you to do but to be My love?
What you are is not performance. What you do may or may not be what you are. When what you are and what you do are one, you have Oneness. Who you are is pure being. Pure love. That does not necessarily mean pure lovingness because lovingness is open to interpretation. The pure love of pure being is its own and is not open to interpretation. It is not affected by how it is looked at.
Know this, Tina, you are spiraling up.
Be happy, Tina.
Be mindless, Tina. Put your mind to rest for a while, dear one, and just be in the Sun.
Gloria:
Dear God, I saw a wonderful movie called The Gods Must Be Crazy. Part of it is about a little bushman in Australia who walks out to do what he sees as an important mission. Out in the world, because of his simplicity and innocence, he finds himself arrested. At court, the judge asks the interpreter if the bushman pleads guilty or not guilty. The interpreter answers, "Not guilty" without even asking the bushman. He did this because there is no word for guilt in the bushman's language.
God, I have tried to imagine what a world without the concept guilt would be.
God:
It would be a sweet world. Without the concept of guilt, there would be no concept of sin or crime or wrongdoing. The closest the Bushman's tribe came to the concept of wrong was: not happy. Their question never was about right or wrong. It was about happy or unhappy.
They also did not know selfish or unselfish because this tribe, who in terms of the world, had nothing — in their terms, in their truth — they had plenty of everything. And their truth is closer to My truth.
Gloria:
When the little bushman went out on his journey, there was no packing clothes or lunch, no schedule to adhere to. He didn't even know how far he had to go to find the end of the earth he was looking for. He thought it could be ten or twenty miles.
Their life was so sweet and easy. They had no house to clean, objects to buy etc. I have to wonder if the modern world has really made progress.
God:
Change is inevitable. Within all the appurtenances of modern life, there can still be simplicity.
The little bushman was very clear on what mattered. Modern man can be that too.
Gloria:
It seemed that the little bushman enjoyed everything more than most of us. The only thing he didn't enjoy was when he was in prison. He had never even seen a wall before, let alone be completely covered with them, ceiling and floor as well. But he never protested. He just sat there sweetly, and smiled at the guards and said, "I am sorry I cannot eat. I am sure the food is good."
God:
Without walls is a good metaphor for the freedom he enjoyed. Simple, free, clear. Those were his attributes. Another name would be innocent. You in modern life can be simple, clear, innocent, and free. You can do it. Select.