We see what and who we want to see. . .

I heard a great message this morning at The Recovery Church in St. Paul.  It was about the power we each have to experience life how we’d like it to be.  It falls on us to see differently if we want a different experience. Shifting our perception of a person or a situation does change us; it changes our attitude and our behavior. Perhaps you think it’s hard to shift your perception but I assure you, it isn’t.  It takes a little willingness to ask our Higher Power for the help  to do it. That’s all.  And that’s not very much, is it?

I heard about this “tool,” and a miraculous tool it is, from a friend more than twenty years ago who was involved in another spiritual program, one that I soon realized complemented my journey in AA and Al-Anon. I became a hardy student of this new way of seeing because I could detect a level of peace in him that I didn’t have.  He said it was because he worked every day on shifting his judgmental perceptions of those people and the myriad situations he was drawn into and if he was willing to see them differently, truly willing, they mirrored who he actually wanted them to be.

Naturally I doubted his words at first.  I had spent a lifetime wanting people to change with no success.  In fact, I went to Al-Anon initially because I thought they would teach me how to change others.  In time I came to understand what a gift it really is that you can’t change others by sheer will.  But I was intrigued to find out how to accomplish this changed perception, particularly if it would result in some thing similar to what I had wanted previously.

George said the tool was a simple one.  All I had to do, and all you have to do too, if you are interested in this idea is: quietly ask your Higher Power for help in seeing some one else or some situation differently and then pause, allowing time for the changed perception to materialize.  He assured me it would.  I have discovered his suggestion to work effectively every time I apply it.  The key, of course, is willingness.  The method is to ask and then pause in the stillness.  Be expectant and your vision will change.  Your emotions will reflect this and peace will be your gift.

Are you as peaceful as you want to be?  There is a way to claim more for yourself and now you know how to do it.  Go for it!