Denials and Affirmations

Last Sunday's message was on Labor Day, a holiday to honor all work. As Rev Janet McCourt prepared her message, she wound her way from honoring physical labor to honoring all work - including the work we all do on our spiritual paths using spiritual principles.

Janet's particular example of working on her spiritual principles involved Unity principle number four: Through prayer and meditation, we align our heart-mind with God. Denials and affirmations are tools we use. Janet created her own personal denial and affirmation about sugar and a healthy body which she said worked for her as long as she worked on it.

The following definitions are from H. Emilie Cady's book Lessons in Truth, which Janet recently studied here at Unity. From Lesson 4: "By denial, we mean declaring not to be true a thing that seems true." Denials are definitely a more difficult concept to grasp since these days we often think of denial as burying our heads in the sand or pretending something isn't so. Rather, to deny is "to acknowledge the appearance of a circumstance but deny its power over us." From Lesson 5:  "To affirm anything is to assert positively that it is so, even in the face of all contrary evidence....They who have studied spiritual laws find that, besides denying the reality and power of apparent evil, which denying frees them from it, they also can bring any desired good into their lives by persistently affirming it is there already."

Coincidentally (some say there are no coincidences) Janet and I were in the same Lessons in Truth class facilitated by Rebecca and Rev T. I had not yet written a denial and affirmation for myself.

At the end of her message, Janet led us in a meditation to see if each of us would find our own personal denial and affirmation for a particular circumstance in our lives. The format shown here was included in the bulletin. I went into the meditation with this on my mind: I have been struggling lately looking for and wanting other people's approval - that is, looking outside for my worth, rather than looking within to Holy Spirit. And so this opportunity to create my own denial and affirmation was timely.

At the end of July I wrote here that I don't always get a message in the meditation time. Well last Sunday I did again. This is what I got:

I deny any power other people's beliefs hold over me,

and I embrace the power of my own beliefs

and my ability to continue to learn. Thank you, God

I intend to pay attention to my over-reactions to someone else's comment. I intend to pause and to listen and be steady in my own beliefs - or to educate myself if I need more information.

I encourage everyone reading this post to give this a try if you haven't already. Pick a situation and go into meditation looking for a denial and affirmation that fits into the format Janet gave us. And then, if you feel like it, share it here in your comments. P.S. Thank you, Janet

~ JEAN