We continue our exploration of Edwene Gaines' The Four Spiritual Laws of Prosperity with this week's focus on forgiveness.
Rev. Edwene speaks of five techniques for the practice of forgiveness. I have paraphrased them with my own explanations.
1. Write, speak, and listen to forgiveness affirmations.
2. Clean the slate every night.
3. Do a regular forgiveness inventory.
4. Practice the Fifth Step.
5. Ask God for help to forgive self and others.
1. Write, speak, and listen to forgiveness affirmations. – This is an easy, effective way to get your forgiveness work going in the right
direction. Write it, speak it, listen to it, even if you don't yet believe it. Here are Edwene's suggested possibilities:
- I forgive myself completely for every mistake I have ever made.
- I forgive others, knowing that we all did the best we could at that time.
- I let go of guilt, blame, shame, judgment, and hurt.
- I am free from condemnation.
- I forgive my parents.
- I allow myself to be forgiven and to move forward with my life.
2. Clean the slate every night. – Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, taught his students to do a forgiveness exercise each night before
retiring. Leave all that belongs to today with today. Don't carry it forward into tomorrow. Today was as today was. Nothing is going to change
that. Lay it down and let it go so that you can awake fresh with a clean slate tomorrow. 3. Do a regular forgiveness inventory. –
have you ever set time aside to do a personal inventory? Those of us who have walked the Twelve
Steps have done this, probably more than once. It occurred to me this week that I would like to take a week-end once a year and go away by
myself and get really real with myself. This is a time to check and re-check and double-check. Is there something or someone out there that I
need to forgive? Have I over-looked anything? Maybe something from childhood, my parents, my siblings, my teen-age years, old bosses, or
colleagues. You get the idea. The list could go on and on. 4. Practice the Fifth Step. - The Fifth step says -
Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
The Catholics call this "confession." And it is powerful. We can learn from other traditions. The power here is in the sharing. It makes it real.
It brings it right out in front of our awareness. We can no longer hide. The sharing with another human being needs to be a trusted prayer
partner, someone who can see you in your BIG Christ Light, someone who can see you free and unencumbered by your seeming mistakes and shortcomings.
5. Ask God for help to forgive self and others. – When Myrtle Fillmore, our other co-founder, had the realization that through her prayer
work she could heal her body by changing her thoughts about her health, she imagined that she was sitting in the company of Jesus. She
placed a picture of Jesus in an empty chair across from her and she talked to Jesus, her beloved elder brother and way-shower, asking him to
forgive her for believing that she could ever be anything less than perfect and whole. Then she spoke to her body, addressing each organ and
each system, asking each to forgive her for ever saying they were diseased or torpid. In a quiet meditation, imagine that you are sitting in the
presence of your holy creator, in whatever form that comes to you. Imagine that God, Jesus, Buddha, or Guardian Angel says to you, "You are
free! You are not guilty!" Then take a deep breath and say to yourself, "I am free! I am forgiven! I am new in Christ!"
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