WEEKLY WISDOM

THIS IS A SPECIAL WEEKLY WISDOM
FEATURING ERNEST HOLMES' THOUGHTS
ABOUT THANKSGIVING

"THANKSGIVING:
OUR DAY OF PRAISE"

~ By Ernest Holmes
 

If you love dogs and children, you have studied their reactions to those around them and realize how important a little praise can be. Perhaps someone may say, “This is certainly true of children. They do love to be praised.

They love to feel that they are important in the family life.” But dogs also have a language of their own. When you talk to them and tell them how wonderful they are and look deep into their eyes, their tails wag and they kind of smile back at you as they lick your hand.

Dogs and children are not so far apart after all. Dogs and children know if you inwardly disapprove of them whether or not you say anything. They reach out with a feeling toward you, and if that feeling is rebuffed, they are unhappy.

We all are children, just children of a larger growth and a little more experience; just children wanting to be loved, wanting to sing our little song and dance our little dance. We all like to strut our stuff and play the game of life with joy.

Of course we also want to be adults; we don’t want to be too foolish. But there is such a thing as “The Game of Life,” and there must be a way to play it so that when we go to bed at night we won’t carry too much of the hurt of the day into a restless sleep, so that when we wake in the morning we will anticipate something that promises to be wonderful and exhilarating.

This is the way we are made, and God never makes mistakes. There is nothing wrong with This Thing Called Life, because whatever seems wrong with it is in the way we are living it and not in life itself. If we are not getting the most out of life, it must be because we are not putting the most into it.

Thanksgiving is more than a day to serve turkey and dressing and eat brown gravy on mashed potatoes. It really means that we should be grateful for life; that we should praise the giver of all good; that we should gratefully acknowledge the priceless heritage of a free and noble people. But how much time do we spend in affirming the good things of life, in recognizing that which is best in ourselves and others? In the exaltation of this spirit, the Psalmist exclaimed, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless the Lord’s holy name.”

Mrs. Luther Burbank once told me that her husband used to talk to his plants and tell them exactly what he planted them to do. A friend of mine talks to animals just as surely as you and I talk with each other, and just so surely do they respond. There is a principle here. If plants and animals and children respond to praise, why wouldn’t everything else?

We want to find something in people and situations that will respond to us with joy and vitality. Suppose it were there all the time, and our lack of acknowledgement merely obscures it. We would have to start with the simple proposition that there is something good at the center of everything; that everything would be all right with our world if we could approach it in the right way, if we could meet people and situations in the right way, if we could get rid of all fear and sham and pretense, all of this false front we put up, and discover something real and genuine, something happy and whole at the center of everything.­

There is a divine presence at the center of things which responds to us, and it ought to be so real that we feel it everywhere, in everyone and in every situation. Our starting point is to believe this, not as a theory or an idle dream, but as something to be recognized and entered into here and now.

Jesus recognized God as the supreme presence in the universe, not only outside of people, but within them. He approached life and people as though this were true. And because he did, his life became a miracle. Everything he touched sprang into a newness of being. He didn’t condemn the few loaves and fishes that the little child brought to him but, looking up­ to heaven, gave thanks for their increase.

Are you and I giving thanks and praising the increase? Are we gratefully acknowledging the good we wish to experience, or are we condemning the little things in our lives so that they cannot multiply in our hands? After all, it is really the little things that count. Just as minutes run into hours and hours run into days and days into years and years fill up our lives, so it is that the little things that transpire from moment to moment actually decide what our lives are to be and to become.

Recently I read of an experiment two people made with a couple of rose bushes. Each day they blessed and praised one of the bushes, specializing on it alone, and in a few months the rose bush that was daily blessed responded with a lavish blossoming that far exceeded that of the other one.

Suppose we apply this principle to everything we are doing—to people, to situations and to our daily living—taking as our central thought that the divine presence is in everything and responds to us through everything. It is really a wonderful thing to thank God at every mealtime for the blessing of food. It is wonderful to bless each other for friendship. It will perform a miracle in your life if you consciously bless every situation you find yourself in.

Take time each day to say, “I bless every member of my family. I bless my spouse. I praise my children. I bless everything that they are doing.”

Bless the gifts you make to people. Bless the friends you have. And above everything else don’t forget to pray the prayer of blessing for great and wonderful country that you live in. Bless your leaders, and pray for everyone in places of public responsibility.

If you are in business, bless your business. Bless the customers that come in and bless the goods that go out. Bless everyone working with you or around you. And don’t forget to bless your own effort, that it will prosper and multiply and increase and return to you a hundred fold.

You are proceeding on the proposition that there is a divine presence in everything and everyone, and a divine law of good running through everything. Your recognition of this law, your acceptance of it, your prayer of affirmation about it, causes this presence to respond to you in a new way. It rises to meet your expectation, your faith, your conviction and your acceptance.

In doing this, don’t pay too much attention to negative situations. In other words, try to bring a positive affirmation to bear on everything that is negative. You will soon find that the negative things will tend to disappear and the positive will take their place. This will have a very interesting effect on you personally. You will find a new lightness coming into your step, a new sense of joy into your mind, and a growing, deep and abiding conviction that God really is in God’s heaven, and that God’s heaven is wherever you happen to be.

Here is one more thought I would like to add. Try to give thanks for even those things that you do not see. The Bible says, “Blessed are they who, not having seen, still believe.” In other words, when Jesus blessed the loaves and fishes, he was blessing the increase that he knew God would provide, and his faith and expectancy reached out to the law of good in such a way that there was an immediate manifestation of more.

Jesus hadn’t seen all the loaves and fishes that were needed to feed the multitude, but he blessed this invisible substance and he gave thanks for this increase. And you must do this also, because God never lets anyone down.

Particularly try to bless yourself. Bless your hopes, your aims and your aspirations. Bless the faith that is in you, and it will grow; it will bloom like the rose bush.

Bless the unused talents that you possess, and new ways of doing things will come into your experience. There is no way that God can work for us other than by working through us, and if we reject the gift of life, if we refuse to accept it, how can we ever hope to hold it in our hands?

Be sure that you don’t make a drudgery of this. Let it be a song of praise, a joy in blessing, a gladness in giving, just as spontaneous as was the faith of the little child who brought those few loaves and fishes and placed them in the loving hands of the Master.

Isn’t it wonderful that out of all that vast throng of people who needed to be fed and the doctors of the law who stood around and those who thought they knew all the answers, and even Jesus’ immediate disciples, the only person in that great congregation who really entered into the spirit of what Jesus was doing was a little child?

Jesus and the little child were the only two people in that gathering who didn’t know that it couldn’t be done. And Jesus apparently wanted the cooperation of someone who did know that it could be done, just as he knew.

I love to think of that little child, his eyes bright with enthusiasm, his little feet digging their toes into the dirt, and the hand of expectancy outstretched, willing and glad to surrender his morsel and without the slightest question in his mind about the increase.

Let’s you and I see if we cannot become as little children. It is natural for us to believe. It is natural for us to dance with joy and enter into the rhythm of life with happiness. And it is natural for us to expect the miracle of love to perform its act of kindness.

We are either talking about the greatest thing in life, or else we are following a forlorn hope that could lead only to despair. We may be certain that we are talking about the greatest thing in life. There is an inner presence that responds to us. There is a law of good that works for us. There is a power of right that can rearrange all of our circumstances, if we believe it can.

Suppose we try this week to discard our negative approaches to people and circumstances, and for every condemnation let’s find something to praise. For every doubt, let’s find a faith. For every fear, let’s have a new hope. Let’s see if we can’t sing our song of praise and thanksgiving. I know that if we practice this for the next few days, a new flavor will come into our living, and when we gather around that festive board, we will be able to say with the Psalmist, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless the Lord’s holy name.”

There is a key to right living, a golden key to happiness and success. This key is prayer—affirmative prayer. Prayer is our direct line of communion with God. It is through this communion that we clear the mind of negative thoughts, of doubts and fears. This we must do if we are to become aware of the presence of God within and around us.

Let us then, take this thought as our prayer for today: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless the Lord’s holy name.”

Let us now join together in affirming God’s bounty. Let us shut every other thought out of our minds, that there be nothing to disturb us in this moment of our acceptance, as we enter into our meditation confidently, joyfully, and quietly.

I now acknowledge God, the divine Spirit, as a living presence in everything and in everyone. I bless everyone I meet. I praise everything I do. I acknowledge God’s abundance, the outpouring of the Spirit, the manifestation of life everywhere.

I bless my family. I praise my friends. I rejoice in the activities of my life.

I know that love does not condemn and life does not destroy. I sincerely desire that every thought of my mind and every impulse of my whole being will be constructive and life-giving, and will radiate that which I now believe and accept to be at the center of my being: the light that lights every individual’s pathway.

I bless the small things in my life, that they may multiply and become great. I bless everything that seems little, that it will increase. I bless that which is good, and I desire that good alone will reach out from me to meet the need in everyone, in love, in joy, and with thanksgiving.