Gloria to God:

Dear God, I did something yesterday that gave me a lesson, and I guess the lesson is to tell the truth or keep quiet. I referred to someone who wanted to help with HEAVEN but who also might be undermining. I covered the identity of this person by changing things in HEAVEN. To my horror, as soon as I had emailed it, I saw that I might have been pointing to the identity of someone else who is truly supportive and loving of HEAVEN. I feel terrible if this person even had a moment's thought that I meant her.

Maybe my lesson is not to try to "protect" someone, because that is controlling anyway.

Dear God, I feel such a niggling regret. I apologized to this loyal person, but I feel I've damaged something here.

God:

How good intentions can lead astray. Better to stay with truth or leave it out. And to think a minute. And now you know.

Gloria:

Forgive me for going on about this. I have to question my delayed reaction. I didn't catch on right away that that person was demeaning HEAVEN until later. The full extent didn't hit me until this morning. Is being stupid a self-protective device? And when people say unkind things, are they trying to be in control?

God:

Of course. And this person did a good job of it. Here you are, two days later, anguishing over it.

Gloria:

The person said it was a joke that HEAVEN would have a 50 to 60,000 readership, and I thought he was saying a joke group or something like that on the web got that many readers. But it was meant that HEAVEN couldn't succeed. I am doubly annoyed: at the statement and my stupidity.

God:

Instead of perceiving this as an attack, perceive it as a mistake.

And you do not need to protect Me or HEAVEN. You do not need to protect anything.

You certainly don't need to protect your ego. How your ego is pricked because you didn't catch on.

There will be people who sneer at HEAVEN. Let them. Their sneering is a sure sign that something is getting through to them and shaking the safety of their belief system.

You can also pay more attention to your own feelings of comfort or discomfort in the first place. Somewhere you learned that you must always wear a smile, and that instruction has taken precedence over your feelings. Do not be thinking, "How is it proper to react here?" but rather, "What do I feel?"

And this is the story of almost everyone's life.

Now you know you have My love. Must you so much need everyone's? How much approval do you need? Are you doing HEAVEN as a search for approval? Think a moment.

Gloria:

I hope not. I hope it's from devotion to You.

God:

Every shred of your small ego will be scraped off in your devotion.

Be glad.

Ignore derision and move on.

When you make a mistake, move on.

In life, you are sailing on a ship that doesn't stay in the same water. You don't regret the water that you passed. You are a ship moving, and all the water in the ocean helps you move through itself.

Gloria:

A Course in Miracles speaks of a person's being honest when he is not conflicted, and therefore is consistent. Consistency means you don't have self-deception. You have peace of mind, so you can't be in conflict with anything.

God, I'm trying to paraphrase A Course in Miracles here, and so much is lost. Like poetry, the power isn't in the meaning by itself but is contained in the flow of the words. I am sad not to be able to just copy a passage down.

I would think that Christ would want his words promoted everywhere. Can You imagine the Bible with a copyright?

God:

Christ's consciousness is in the language. You feel his strength there.

Gloria:

Wouldn't You want everyone to use quotations from HEAVEN?

God:

Yes.

Copyrights attempt to protect, but what needs protection? Who can steal the truth?

And this comes back to your trying to protect the identity of someone when there is no need.

Gloria to Mother Divine:

Dear Mother Divine, what will you say this morning?

Mother Divine:

You are sailing on a huge ship, and you think you are in a little boat.

Now that you are on a large liner, you must expand your thinking. It is one thing to catch on to what is going on around you. It is another to be caught up in it.

Disengage yourself from hurts, pettiness… Do you see how they are results of judgement?

Is it not possible that the person you saw as demeaning HEAVEN said what you needed to hear in order to finish with some pastness of your life that had nothing to do with HEAVEN?

There is a joke on you here, Gloria. I will tell you: Heaven cannot be demeaned. God's words cannot be demeaned.

Someone could throw rotten tomatoes at Heaven — do you think they would reach or change anything?

As for HEAVEN words and HEAVEN heart, can they be hurt or lost?

Your ego can hurt, but what is that but a false front? Throw it out. Step out of its accouterments and be your own true Self walking with God.

That is honesty, walking with God. That is Heaven.

HEAVENletters will reach many hearts. God has made a list of hearts to receive it. God has their addresses.

God collects hearts. That is what God does.