Message #43653

[guest587]

Well... A little background- I am a member of the 1111 forum. It's one of the first forums I discovered during a spiritual seeking and awakening experience. It's not an active forum, and I don't follow the teachings of the UB(Urantia Book) but I do enjoy reading these channeled messages.

So this message stood out to me at a time of great grief between my Sister and I. And on a larger scale with my personal and impersonal relationships I.E, the workplace and people in general.

My Sister surprised me the other day at work, I can tell she is trying(in her ways) to make amends. I had been made so disturbed by her over the years that I find I lack the energy to give to her in the way a "good brother" ought to. There is a wall placed between us, and I can't be comfortable around her. It's so deep that it's not intentional, but a consequence of our relationship being made estranged.

So when I read this part here,

"Great acts of generosity cannot be measured by the calculating mind, but by the feeling one experiences in the heart, and the surety in one’s confidence that a kindness has been proffered."

I immediately recognized this truth when my Sister came to my store, I stopped the thinking mind and just gave love and kindness. It wasn't for anything in return either. It was just because I believe in love and kindness. Despite my grief. After reading this message I felt, how true, we do not calculate generosity. We feel it, and express it. I was so impressed I tried to be more engaged with my Sister later in the day. There was both an effort to restore a broken relationship, but when the moment really called for it, a effortless feeling of surrender.

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Separately...

My Boss is really stressed out at work. She is a good woman, but she is a little one sided with her lease on life. She is open to guidance, but only in the subtlest of ways. You can not directly engage her, and you have to allow her the space to express. And energetically speaking, she can really sprawl herself out there. It's a delicate place. So there are things she says or does that I don't always agree with. And I know deep down if she took a moment to pause and reflect, she too would disagree with her initial behavior or attitudes towards certain experiences.

So this is the part of the message that made me think about my boss.

" ‘Small’ is only a relative word and to label an act of genuine generosity as ‘large’ or ‘small’ is inappropriate in the spiritual sense.

In general, if you feel ‘soul-satisfied’ in your action when choosing to give either, words, deeds, time, emotional, educational, financial, or spiritual support, then consider it sincere"

You see... My Boss is trying to get these kittens adopted. She suggested to me a customer who might be a suitable candidate only to express her disappointment with the person she suggested. Why? Because she brought it up last week and the customer said she could not adopt the kittens but would pray for her. My Boss sneered as she relayed this story to me, she mocked the person. She said, "pray! i'll PRAY on it! well actions speak louder than words!" I couldn't believe it. I didn't know what to say... I just said, "not always" but she was fighting me- insistent that prayer is a wasted effort. I said something "sometimes being louder than words isn't necessarily a good thing." but my intuition knew this was not the way to handle the situation...

Well as luck would have it this customer came to our store later in the day. My Boss freaked out and said, "dont say anything to her! i already know she wont take the kittens, dont offer- just let the pictures speak for themselves." Because we put up an adoption sign...

The customer saw the picture and told me about her cat that just died. It turns out she could not take on kittens because she was still grieving her best friend of 20 years. She made the decision to put her down last week. She called her cat a member of her family, and had such a strong emotional bond that to this cat that she could not foresee any cats in her immediate future. She tried to speculate maybe a year from now she might have a cat... And our talk was just matching energy and sympathizing.

But I came to the 1111 forum after work to read this message and these are some of the instances that played out across my mind. I thought... True- you can not measure kindness by greater than or lesser than. Not this, "actions speak louder than words" attitude. In fact, I believe in the power of prayer. More importantly, I believe in the power of sincerity. And a sincere prayer is more effective than an insincere action. I truly believe it, have experienced it first hand. So if I get the chance I may remind my Boss that we should not weigh a persons kindness. If someone says they are offering you a prayer, and it is sincere, we should be thankful for such a consideration. The world benefits from kindness, even if its just a feeling from the heart. And for us unenlightened fellows, that's where most all actions come from, for better or worse. Let's try to make it for the better...