Lesson 40
I am blessed as a Son of God.
My senior year of high school, my economics teacher did an experiment with our class. Throughout our final semester when we arrived in class, we spent the first ten minutes writing down three things we were grateful for. She was inspired to do this because of something she saw on Oprah earlier that year.
Her class was held in the school’s computer lab. I still remember my seat at the back of the room, coming in each day taking that seat, and thinking of three things to be grateful for. I also recall how quiet the room was while we all took part in this process. My list was saved on a floppy disk that was for my eyes only. Something about this process felt so special and sacred. No matter how I my teenage heart was feeling that day in school, there was always something to be thankful for.
I recall there were a few times, probably more, I listed that I was grateful for God. I knew that it was a miracle that I was leaving for college soon after all my soul had experienced thus far in life. Needless to say, I had to grow up quickly in certain areas of my development. With that sort of childhood, I knew there was someone out there watching over me. I knew someone was guiding me beyond what my eyes could see. I could feel it.
This Being that is far more expansive than the three letters making up some sort of name, God, has showered blessing upon blessing over me all because I am a Daughter of God. I do not have to do any special tricks for this or pay any penance. It is just what I was created to be.
“Today we will begin to assert some of the happy things to which you are entitled, being what you are (ACIM Lesson 40 1:1).”
The last few days we have spent bringing light to some of the darker spaces of the mind as we have claimed our holiness. Some of the work has been to lay the foundation so that we could hear today’s words, knowing that we are worthy of the blessings that we are given.
I still remember how foreign the process felt as we started to write down three things I was grateful for each day in economics class. At first it was very hard to think of things, partly because my teenage mind wanted to say “this is stupid.” And when I said that, I know it was my self-worth, which was fragile in high school, couldn’t see how I could be blessed with anything to be grateful for. But as the days went on, I began to look for things throughout the day and noticed when I had just been blessed so that I could add it to my grateful journal in class. This is when the process became sacred. This is when I began to claim my “muchness,” as the Mad Hatter would call it from the recent movie representation of Alice in Wonderland, that which is “greatness in quantity or degree.”
This is where we find ourselves as we step into Lesson 40. The journey thus far has been sort of a spiritual adolescence. We have been exploring our self-worth and the darkness of those teenage years so that we could stand ready to graduate into knowing more of our birthright as Daughters and Sons of God. This means we do stand in ownership of our divine blessings, recognizing our “muchness.”
What was an experiment for my economics teacher back in 1997, has become very much so a part of my life ever since. In college during dinner, my roommates and I would go around the table and say three things we were grateful for that day. Post college I dabbled off and on with a gratitude journal. And even more recently I was touched by this influence as I celebrated a birthday.
No doubt, as we all progress in age, sometimes we look over our lives and contemplate how it has not turned out how we thought. To be honest, that is really another blessing in and of itself. But sometimes it doesn’t feel this way. Sometimes as another birthday rolls around we feel somewhat defeated by life and the plans we had for it.
As my birthday came closer this year, I was feeling rather “ho-hum” about it. I didn’t feel my usual excitement around it. What I could sense was that I was feeling rather defeated about my experience over the last year since my last birthday celebration. As my day of birth approached, I just sat with this feeling hoping that it would somehow change. It came to me that I was waiting on something outside of me to create this joy for my birthday. Then on the eve of my birthday, I realized, I was just waiting for me. So that night, I pulled out my markers, my artists notebook, and sat down in my quiet space to put into practice what my economics teacher taught us. I decided to write the blessings I had been given over the last year and made sure that the number at least added up to how old I was turning. The way I was feeling, I thought this was going to be tough. Yet, as I approached this year’s number, I realized I had many more blessings to write down, so I kept going. I ended up with over three colorful pages, front and back, of blessings that had been bestowed upon me over the last year. None of blessings I strived for or had to do some special trick to receive. They happened because I happened. Because I Am. Because I Am A Child of God.
A fellow brother also keeps a white board up as his house when “Miraculous Events” take place over the year. He, too, writes them down colorfully. It is an inspiration to see them when you walk into his house. And again another reminder of, how can we not be blessed as a Child of God?
Thus, today’s lesson is just this. It is claiming the beautiful soul that You Are. The blessing that you are.
I am blessed as a Daughter of God.
I am smart and intelligent.
I am blessed as a Son of God.
I extend love through my smile to those I meet.
I am blessed as a Daughter of God.
I am healthy and whole.
I am blessed as a Son of God.
I love my life.
Go wild with the practice periods today! Claim all those beautiful qualities about yourself. Claim your “muchness!”
You haven’t lost your muchness. It is right there within you where you left it. Today, the Course invites you to bring it out. To own your divinity. To own your righteousness. To own your Godliness. To take your light out from under the basket and let it shine! Because this is what you are!
I thank you for all the blessings that you claim today. Because as you claim your blessings, you give me the courage and permission to claim my “muchness” as well. That is how powerful and influential you are!
Namaste.