“The gift of contentment, something very foreign, slowly began to flower inside.”

“Love is heaven and fear is hell. To punish yourself is to put yourself in hell for no reason. To love yourself and everyone and everything in your life is to give yourself heaven right now and ensure your place there for eternity. Help me to find innocence and forgiveness for myself, all persons and all things. Just for today, I enter heaven by living with gratitude and an open heart.”

Adapted from A Deep Breath of Life

“Today I humbly ask my Higher Power for the grace to find the space between my impulse and my action; to let flow a cooling breeze when I would respond with heat; to interrupt fierceness with gentle peace; to accept the moment which allows judgment to become discernment; to defer to silence when my tongue would rush to attack or defend. I will watch for every opportunity to turn toward my Higher Power for guidance. I know where this power is: it resides within me, as clear as a mountain brook hidden in the hills – it is the unsuspected Inner Resource. I thank my Higher Power for this world of light and truth I see when I allow It to direct my vision. Today, I will trust It and hope It trusts me to find the right thought or action.”

Adapted from Daily Reflections

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. Forgiveness does not mean ignoring what has been done or putting a false label on an evil act. It means, rather, that the evil act no longer remains as a barrier to the relationship. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate. When we look beneath the surface, beneath the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbor a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of their acts are not quite representative of all that they are. We see them in a new light. We recognize that their hate grows out of fear, pride, ignorance, prejudice, and misunderstanding. In spite of this, we know God’s image is ineffably etched in their being. It is then we love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad; they are not beyond the reach of God’s redemptive love.”

Adapted from The Difficult Work of Loving Others

Meditation for the Day “I want to be at one with the Divine Spirit of the universe. I will set my deepest affections on things spiritual, not on things material. As a man thinketh, so is he. So I will think of and desire that which will help, not hinder, my spiritual growth. I will try to be at one with God. No human aspiration can reach higher than this. Prayer for the Day I pray that I may think love, and love will surround me. I pray that I may think health, and health will come to me.”

Adapted from Twenty-Four Hours a Day© 1975, Hazelden Foundation. All rights reserved.