“Whatever you accept into your mind has reality for you. It is, however, only your acceptance of it that makes it real.” (ACIM)

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Guiding Thought

Gratitude makes all things new! When we are aware of our Source in Love, we see its activity everywhere. It is the Substance of Life itself! We are in the flow and create and expand with Love, in Life!

Reflection

There is a theme throughout A Course in Miracles that goes something like this: When you accept the Atonement (At-One-Ment), when you hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and only the voice of the Holy Spirit, when you See with True perception (which is not really a perception at all, but simply “Truth”), you will have attained the Peace of God.

These three things–accepting the Atonement, hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit, Seeing–they are all just kind of ways that you can gauge “how close you are” to attaining the Peace of God. (“how close you are” is only necessary in time, in a relative world). But once you attain one of these three completely, you will have attained all of them. There is no in-between. It’s all, or…you’re still “getting” there.

The language in the Course goes back and forth between talking to us in a way that represents how we experience time and relative reality, but then telling us that once we accept the Atonement, relative reality becomes obsolete, we no longer need it, so we no longer experience it (we experience Freedom, the Peace of God).

While we experience time and relative reality, we make choices within those frameworks. But the point is to step out of those frameworks completely and into the Atonement.

• Learning is only necessary in time, in relative reality; we no longer need to learn, when we Know God.
• Forgiveness is only necessary in time, in relative reality; we no longer need to forgive, when we Know God’s infinite all-encompassing Love.
• Healing is only necessary in time, in relative reality; We are already Whole.

The only real choice is between relative reality and the Atonement. All of the choices we are making within relative reality only serve to keep us here, in relative reality. When we begin, more often, to choose the Atonement, that is when we experience things like healing–we are choosing the Peace of God more often. What we choose to accept into our minds has reality for us.

Gratitude behaves the same way as forgiveness or healing: in relative reality it acts as a bridge to Love, to the Peace of God. This is why Gratitude makes all things new. With gratitude, our minds and hearts open to Love, to our Source; when our minds accept Love, Love becomes our reality.

Similarly, once we achieve the Peace of God, we no longer “need” to be grateful: It is a constant state of Being, as we are in the flow and create and expand with Love, in Life!