Diane to God:

Dear God, I am trying to find a missing piece in my understanding. I love what You said the other day about when something hurts my feelings, it is really Your love saying, "Notice My love, you have been looking elsewhere."

Is it that simple? Will You elaborate on this idea?

When I feel hurt by my husband's behavior or Molly's passing, is that because I am not noticing Your love?

Am I feeling unlovable so then I experience unlove? Help! This feels really important.

Love, Your Work In Progress, Diane

God to Diane:

When you are feeling hurt by your husband's behavior or thoughts of Molly's passing, think of Me more. Notice My love more. Think of Me more intently. Let go of the other thoughts. Putting your thoughts on Me is the cure. Switch your thoughts to a higher level, dear Diane.

Hurt and aggravation are like beepers that go off. "Okay, time now to get back on the God track." If you can think of the beepers as signals of love rather than torment, you are already ahead, are you not?

Do not ask perfection of yourself. You are not less when you are annoyed or hurt or angry. You are merely sidetracked.

There is big difference between feeling hurt by what your husband says or does and missing Molly. In missing Molly, there is sweetness, is there not?

We know that it is better to let go of control than to keep it. Control is a clamping force. How do you then let go of your ideas and your emotions without controlling them?

You do not make them go. You say goodbye to them, and let them go. That happens of itself when you turn to Me.

Do not hesitate to give Me your troubles. Do not be ashamed or feel unworthy to give Me your troubles. Give Me your pain as well as your love. And it is My desire that you not only give Me your mountains but that you give Me your ant hills as well.

When you say goodbye to what bothers you, you gently close a door.

Before what bothers you arrives, you can set up boundaries. That is not the same as control.

Katrina needs to set up some boundaries at work. If she allows people to infringe on her, naturally she will become irritated and cross.

How do you set up boundaries that people will not walk over? It is not a pronouncement. It is not rules and regulations. It is a silent line that your sense of self-worth sets up. Your sense of self-worth fills the space around you, and no one will step over it. Or, if they do, they will know right away what they have done and refrain from doing it again.

It is not My Will that Katrina or Lauren ever be taken advantage of.

In marriage, it is harder for My children. Diane, in your marriage, two people living together, your husband wants more of your attention. He gets it by needling you. His behavior is his behavior. His words are his words. But how they affect you is a pattern. You may be able to set things up in such a way that your husband feels more of your love and attention and less of a need to jab at you. I am not putting his behavior on you, Diane. His behavior belongs to him. But you live with him, and you want the living to be easier for both of you.

Can you think of a special treat for him? You are always doing something special for the children, thinking of ways to give them joy, and make life better. In a way, your husband is one of your children. Can he be important when he comes home from work?

I do not want you doing anything gritting your teeth, dear Diane, but if you can find a way in your heart to give your husband something more, it could break the pattern of your relationship and turn the balance towards more evenness.

Now, everything that happens around you isn't your doing, Diane. I want to make that clear. But how you feel about what goes on and what you choose to do about it is your doing.

As to your perceptive question: Am I feeling unlovable so then I experience unlove? If you find yourself feeling unlovable, give what you would most like to have right then. What would that be but love?

And when someone sends you unlove, they are feeling unlovable. And then they may prove to themselves that they are unlovable by further unlovable behavior. But they are, without exception, asking for love. Perhaps instead of love, We could better say acceptance. Neutrality. It is hard not to take personally what seems to be perpetrated on you, for it seems intolerable.

Turn to Me, Diane, and turn your thinking. Find another way to look at what you're looking at. Come from a different angle. Turn your other cheek.

Ask Me more questions, dear Diane.

And, yes, Molly continues to thrive in Heaven.