2016-10-08-About Self-Respect

Session

Quote

“Spiritual living mightily increases true self-respect. But self-respect is not self-admiration. Self-respect is always coordinated with the love and service of one’s fellows.” 156:5.14.

Lesson

Thought Adjuster: “Let us expand on Self-Respect. What do you respect yourself for? You can either feel ‘self-respectable’ or ‘self-despicable’ depending on whether or not you are conflicted within yourself. Inner conflict implies that there are areas within your being in dire need of harmonization. It means that you experience some inner discordance due to the fact that some of your actions clash with your professed intentions and go against the values of Truth, Beauty and Goodness. They may fool others but do not fool your own subtle inner truth detector.

“In your world, many so-called ‘respectable’ individuals do not actually meet the standards for the respect and admiration of their peers. They are admired based on their external status of wealth or power, or for a specific God-given talent. Yet, they climb or are placed by their peers on dangerously unstable man-made pedestals that can become an even greater factor of unbalance in their character. Narcissism — unhealthy self-admiration — is a soul poison. It fails to acknowledge that the self is unsustainable by itself and that its livelihood depends on the whole organism.

“Indeed, self-respect is proportional to your love and service toward your fellow men. Self-respect comes with the added bonus of inner peace. If you are what others consider a ‘straight arrow,’ you will eventually reach your intended target of being of higher service — the Divine Bull’s Eye.

“However, if you entertain hidden agendas of self-aggrandizement and self-service at the expense of others, you may shoot yourself in the foot and cause personal injury to the integrity of your being.

“Your planetary history has experienced both sides of the coin — self-centered dictators and God-centered individuals whose deeds spoke louder than their words. The nefarious effects of narcissism were exemplified by Lucifer, its infamous poster child, and were later counterbalanced by the selfless life of Jesus Christ who never compromised His integrity by falling victim to the dangers of adulation and who lived His entire life loving and serving His fellows.

Closing

“Dear ones, if you suffer from weak self-respect, it is not a terminal affliction. Go within and ponder what could be at the root of that symptom. Be honest with yourself as truth is a great liberator. There is so much within each one of you that is worthy of love and respect. Yet, love and respect have to be generously shared with others and they will automatically come back at you like a glorified boomerang in the form of self-love and self-respect.”