Letting Go of Political Hate

stop_hateRecently after the results of the national election became known, a dear friend of mine announced that he was severing all ties and “un-friending” anyone who had voted for the president-elect, including his relatives.

I could understand his disappointment and utter sadness. However, I felt like he was taking the voting for the candidate personally…in other words those who had voted against his candidate were, in fact, voting against him and his needs.

My friend is usually a very loving, caring person so I was surprised at his dismay, and disappointment manifested in this manner.

Someone once said, “If you cut off those who love you, you’re left with no one who loves you.”

It may seem to us that our country is split into opposing factions as a result of the outcome. Bitterness and hate are screaming for our attention and embrace.

Last fall The Christian Science Monitor reported that after what appeared to be a terrorist attack in Ottawa that killed one soldier, New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair took a stand against the hatred that is fueling Islamic extremists. He declared, “These acts were driven by hatred, but also designed to drive us to hate. They will not.”

The refusal to hate is a rock to climb upon…a firm foundation that promises to bless all in the process.

We can’t talk people out of hatred. We can’t bomb it out of them. We can’t even be nice enough to them that maybe they won’t hate or try to hurt others. Only when we understand how to dissolve the actual origins of malice will we all be safe.

The founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, writes about hatred, “Christian Science commands man to master the propensities, — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness and success.”

Hannah More, and 18 century writer and philanthropist said, “If I wished to punish my enemy, I should make him hate somebody.”

Hate is like darkness. Love is like light. When we live our lives with more consciousness of this light, darkness loses its capacity to reach us. As we begin to see that God is all, that this Light or Love is infinite, the darkness no longer even seems real, and no longer governs or influences our view of others.

“An army of conspirators” is exactly what hatred brings if we allow it through our mental door. Whether through self-justification, jealousy, hurt feelings, criticism or condemnation, hatred brings its own torment.

The human mind is often quick to draw dividing lines between people and create reasons for them to oppose each other. But when we strive to see others through the lens of Love, we find these lines start to dissolve.

To see the unifying power of divine Love in this country that we cherish so much, we have to sacrifice selfish desire; we need to yearn to understand and express Love and to see others as Love’s expression.

It is the power of love that destroys hate. It is Love, God, that comforts and binds up all wounds, resolves conflicts and brings harmony into our experience.

Living the unqualified love of God is what enables us to eradicate any lines between one person and another and find unity.

11/10/16

The Single Parent – by Martha Lemasters

Being a Single parent

Recently I was interviewed by a writer from a West Palm Beach magazine about my book, The Step: One Woman’s Journey to Finding her Own Happiness and Success During the Apollo Space Program. She sent a long list of questions, including one specifically: How did you balance being a single mother with the job?

My answer: One word…organization! By the early part of the Apollo program I was divorced so I knew the girls had to chip in with help. I had a chore chart for my daughters. As I left the house every morning at 6:30, the oldest daughter was responsible for getting her sisters up and dressed for school. They rode their bikes the two blocks to school. After school, they were responsible for unloading and loading the dishwasher, and setting and clearing the table so that things were accomplished when I arrived home to cook dinner. I think these responsibilities helped carve my daughters’ strong, capable personalities. I am very proud of the women they are today.

Today, things are quite different from the 60’s when I was one of only a few single parents. As divorce or demise of a spouse compels a growing number of single parents to undertake the challenges of raising children alone, many wonder if it is possible to be an effective parent and create a healthy household as a single parent.

Even though my ex-husband remarried a month after our divorce was final, I knew it was absolutely necessary for my girls to have a continuing relationship with their dad. I had to put aside all self-righteousness and realize the importance of this bond.

It became clear to me that my expression of love as a mother had to be represented as both calm and tender but also have that element of discipline, or teaching, when the need arose.

I also had to cope with emotionalism and possessiveness, traits that sometimes are attached to mothers, masquerading as legitimate concerns of motherhood. These traits began to recede as my sense of purity of Love grew. I prayed daily to see God’s plan operating in our home.

When our family’s needs seemed beyond my ability to fulfill, I tried wholeheartedly to understand that God’s love rests on Principle. I learned that I could be relaxed without losing control. I was able to more insistently discern right solutions. Freedom and dominion began to characterize the discipline, and anguish and frustration gradually faded out.

At one point during those years working on the Apollo Program I returned home to find a beautiful piece of artwork plastered on the hall wall…embellished by every tube of lipstick that I owned.

My son-in-law, upon reading my book, asked me why I didn’t get mad at them because I just gently praised their skill as artists and thanked them for what was meant as a loving gesture.

Maybe I was just too tired, or maybe it was seeing their dancing eyes, so proud of their manifestation of love, that I just melted with love, instead of indignation.

How comforting it is to lean on the stability of God’s fathering and to feel tangibly the presence of God as the motivating force within family. Limitation of time, financial pressures, or human inadequacies can be resolved step by step when we rely on the wisdom of our heavenly Parent to govern every decision involving home.

The true concept of family is forever whole; it cannot be fragmented. This truth operates in human experience as a law of progress and harmony. It can silence the clamor of fractured families, adjust the heartaches and repair the fragmentation claiming to be so much a part of society.

We need to know that God’s children cannot be victimized. As we pray to understand the true nature of innocence, we realize the child of God could not be maladjusted, apathetic, disabled, or disobedient.

We can affirm that God’s child is motivated by good, and we can expect our children’s behavior and performance to be the reflection of Soul, the stability of Spirit, and the vitality of Life.