Great Morning!

We are Prosperous.

Richard & Mary-Alice Jafolla have stated that ‘prosperity could very well be the easiest of God’s laws to prove…”

What do you think they mean? Do you agree?

Well, I think there’s a hint in this story….
Try think what would you have done in this situation?

There was a workshop back in the 80’s that Unity minister, Susan Eng-Poole attended. Here’s how she tells it:

“We were blindfolded and dropped off in different areas. We were given $1 and we couldn’t bring anything but a sleeping bag and sundries. As this was to prepare us to go to different countries, our assignment was to survive for 24 hours and to get to know about the area as much as possible.
I had in my mindset that I was to ‘survive’ on the dollar and bought a loaf of bread to last me. I walked around the town to learn of it and then settled on an area to do homework. I later slept out in an open field.

All day long people were asking me what I was doing. When I told them, a family invited me to go boating, people wanted to give me money, dinner etc. I thought that was cheating since I would not be surviving on the $1 so I refused. I found a field to sleep in for the night.
The next day I walked into the town to see what time it was, waiting for my pick up. I was surprised because news had spread, and people were watching out for the girl sleeping in the field and were asking how I slept, etc.

When we debriefed the assignment, I was shocked to see my interpretation of the assignment was so different from my fellow classmates. One person had gambled his dollar and won enough for a hotel room and dinner. Another went to a pub and had a blast meeting others, people bought her drinks and talked about their lives, like people do in a bar.

Another person went to a lake and had a meditation retreat. Another asked for a temporary job and washed dishes in a restaurant.
I realized that I had limited myself. I had limited myself because my goal was just to survive. I could have had a much richer experience.”
What do you think?

Now look at your experiences. How have you, …. Me, how have we limited our-selves through our thinking? What beliefs are holding us back?

We have a divine inheritance from our Source, the Creator…but we limit that inheritance…. By our thoughts, our domestication, even our beliefs.

the word ‘prosper’ in its root means “wholeness.” You are prosperous to the degree that you are experiencing peace, health, and plenty in your world.

When most people think of prosperity, we automatically go to gratitude for the people and things already in our life, and how blessed we am.
But there is so much more available to us is we just allow, if we are willing to look beyond our corner of the world. Just imagine…..

Yes, we can use our Power of Imagination to do more and have more in our life. More friendships, more love, more peace and joy.

We need to start being thankful for the good that is already present. This is very important.

From there we learn how to know and claim the prosperity that flows in and through us all to generate more prosperity.

Start now by taking a deep breath. As you feel the air fill your lungs, give thanks that you can breathe easily and effortlessly. And if it takes a bit of effort, give thanks that you can breathe as well as you are now.
Next, look around you and give thanks for the things in your life.
Let’s start right here at Unity: what are YOU grateful for? Our space? Our family of like-minded souls sharing our journey? The many people who volunteer time and talent to helps us with all our endeavors each week. Our Board and Leaders? Give thanks for all these things in your heart.
Do you have a roof over your head? Give thanks for it. Do you have food to eat? Give thanks for it. Do you have an automobile to drive? Give thanks for it every time you get in it. Give thanks for your friends and family, perhaps have a celebration of your relationships. Give thanks for the chair you sit in. For every little thing you have, notice it with a grateful heart and mind. Notice the beauty of nature around you. Gratitude is key!
When we give our attention to the things we are grateful for, we notice more things to be grateful for. We create our life experience through our way of thinking. The magic is that whatever we give our attention to, we manifest more of.

While you are doing this gratitude inventory, notice if there are things in your life that no longer serve you. Clean these things out of your life. This creates a vacuum that allows other things to come to you—it is the cycle of giving and receiving. Are there things you have that might serve someone else better? Give it to them. Or place them in the ‘save for the spring yard sale’ box and donate the sale to Unity like we did this past spring.
Tithe on your income to the places where you receive your spiritual nourishment. A healthy giving consciousness naturally draws better into your life.
One of Unity’s Prosperity experts Rev. Catherine Ponder, writes about the importance of tithing:
“tithing generates prosperity only when you give gratefully and without fear instead of out of obligation”
She continues: “It is through the law of giving and receiving that we demonstrate prosperity, and the first step of receiving is giving. The act of giving moves on universal substance and starts substance flowing back to you in some appropriate form. We are never impoverished by giving, only enriched, and there is always something we can give.”

And do not think that you can’t afford to tithe.
“It is when you think you can’t afford to tithe, that you cannot afford not to tithe.”
Tithing releases unlimited supply. You must share your substance to insure continuation of it.
There are ways to tithe…if not on income, then time and talent…. all part of what you have to share.
Sharing and expectancy are the beginning of financial increase because when you share, you can and should expect a new supply to come to you. Your faith and expectancy opens the way. It is the law of the universe. Just as you must give to make way to receive, you cannot give anything without getting something in return for it.
This is expectancy from the Universe in whatever way IT sees fit. Not necessarily as you do, keep in mind. It may be a car, for example, but red instead of blue…or in my case, grey instead of the white we all were expecting back in 2014.
What would you like to have more of? Close your eyes and imagine what it smells like,
what it tastes like,
what it looks like,
what it feels like.
Imagine it as if it were already yours.
If you are new to this type of thinking, you might want to start small. Would you like to have more happiness and joy in your life? Imagine what it would feel like to be happy and joyful.
Would you like to be gentler and kinder? Imagine what it would feel like to be gentle and kind.
We are pulling the power of the universe into motion, bringing whatever you can imagine into your life.
It is important to be very clear when you imagine what you want to manifest in your life. For example, if you imagine a new pair of shoes, be sure to imagine they fit well and are comfortable.
Maybe you want a better job. What are you doing in the new job?
Do you want better pay? What would you do with the extra money?
Have the courage to imagine your highest and best in the world. Have the courage to imagine a deeper connection to Spirit. Anything you can imagine, you can manifest.
This is like a mental Vision Board. And you can add affirmations to your visioning.; Rev. Catherine Ponder says: “The most powerful technique of all, however, is when you combine the power of the spoken word with the power of the written word and the power of imagination. Picture what you want in your mind, write out your desires on paper, and then speak the word out loud daily.”

When you begin to draw greater prosperity to yourself, don’t forget to be grateful.
Like Willy from the comic strip, Willy N Ethyl: Willy says to his wife: “We could’ve lost a freezer full of food when I accidentally unplugged the fridge. But instead, because it was totally empty, we lost nothing! We have to be the two luckiest people in the world!”

Here’s another story of the power of gratitude:

She smiled at a sorrowful stranger. The smile made him feel better and caused him to remember a past kindness of a friend. With that memory, he decided to write his friend a thank you letter.

The friend was so pleased to receive the thank you, that he left an extra-large tip that day at lunch. The waitress, surprised by the large tip, gave part of it to a man on the street.

The man on the street was very grateful, because for two days he’d had nothing to eat. After he finished his dinner, he left for his small, dingy room. He was feeling so warm and satisfied that, when he saw a shivering puppy on the street, he picked it up and took it home to get warm.

The puppy was very grateful to be in out of the cold. That night the house caught on fire. The puppy barked the alarm. He barked till he woke up the whole household and saved everybody from harm. All this because of a simple smile that hadn’t cost a cent.

We forget that sometimes the simplest things we do can be the most profound. Have you done any simple yet ‘profound’ things lately?

Rev Ponder tells this story of how she learned about Unity:
When I was young and my mother was raising three small children, she became quite ill. My father met an electrical engineer who came to inspect the Carolina Power and Light Company substation he operated in North Carolina.
My father told him about my mother’s daunting health problems. The engineer pulled an issue of Unity Magazine out of his hip pocket, handed it to my father, and said, “Call these people in Kansas City, and they will pray with you about your wife’s health.”
“But we are Presbyterian,” my father told the engineer.
“That doesn’t matter,” the engineer said. “These people are nondenominational and will be glad to pray for your wife.”
He did, and a few days later, my mother was up and around, functioning properly again. (She lived to the age of 80 and was active until her passing.) After that, whenever a problem arose in the family, my father would say to my mother, “Contact those people in Kansas City and tell them to straighten out this problem.” My mother dutifully did so and the problem got “straightened out.”
My mother kept leaving Unity publications around our house because she thought my father “needed” them, but he never took the hint. I eventually wondered what kind of “propaganda” my mother was leaving for my father, so I finally picked up an issue of Unity Magazine. I thought, Wow! Why didn’t Mother tell me what’s in this literature? This is what I have believed all my life.
After that I became an avid reader of Unity literature and books. In 1950, I attended a retreat at Unity Village with others from around the world and had the revelation that made a believer of me. I returned in the early 1950s to attend what was then called Unity Training School. I became a licensed Unity minister in 1957 and was ordained by Lowell Fillmore, son of Unity founders Charles Fillmore and Myrtle Fillmore, in 1958.

Those people in Kansas City can and have straightened out many situations through the years. We believe in the power we hold as co-creator with our Creator.

Lets take all this into meditation….