{"id":112159,"date":"2024-12-03T16:14:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-04T00:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/?p=112159"},"modified":"2024-12-05T07:24:22","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T15:24:22","slug":"the-gift-of-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/archives\/112159-the-gift-of-giving","title":{"rendered":"The Gift of Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"

“In this time of the renewal of the Christ Consciousness and our awareness of it, go inside and appreciate yourself and the gifts you have been given and the gifts you have to share.\u00a0 Be grateful for who you are.”<\/em> – John-Roger<\/p>\n

This article by John-Roger was first published in Rod & Staff Christmas Issue, December 1984.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is the most beautiful gift you can give?\u00a0 The gift of yourself.<\/p>\n

So often we get caught up in trying to find the perfect gift or greeting card or in trying to find the right words to say to someone.\u00a0 And although it’s nice to express our love in these ways, the simplest and most precious gift you have to give resides inside of yourself.<\/p>\n

For many of us, that’s a difficult thing to accept.\u00a0 We tend to look outside ourselves and enter the “comparing” game.\u00a0 Everyone else seems to have more talent, money, happiness — more of everything we think we want.\u00a0 And yet, the reality is that everything you’ve ever wanted or dreamed of having or being is completely intact within yourself.<\/p>\n

Even when we begin to become curious about the spiritual side of our nature, we still think it’s “out there.”\u00a0 We start the search for what seems to be missing from us.\u00a0 In MSIA, we encourage you to look within.\u00a0 The inner journey will reveal the gifts and give you more than you may have thought was possible.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, or fortunately, as the case may be, we may be blind to our own gifts.\u00a0 Have you ever known someone who berates himself or herself for a quality that you admire?\u00a0 Maybe that person says, “I see myself as stubborn,” and you view them as persistent.\u00a0 Or, you may judge yourself for being indecisive, when actually you are very flexible and cooperative.\u00a0 By going within, you become acquainted and familiar with your true nature and gain the skills and the confidence to use those inherent gifts.<\/p>\n

Sometimes people look inside for the first time and don’t like what they see.\u00a0 So, they stop looking, or they blame someone else for their imagined inadequacies.\u00a0 It’s important to keep going, to keep looking past those first few images that are presented to us.\u00a0 We have placed those images there, and they may be false ones.<\/p>\n

Many times I hear people say, “I tried to do spiritual exercises, but it just didn’t work.”\u00a0 I ask them, “How long did you try it?”\u00a0 “For a couple of days.”\u00a0 Then I ask, “What happened?”\u00a0 They may reply, “I fell asleep” or “I couldn’t sit still.\u00a0 Spiritual exercises just don’t work for me.”<\/p>\n

The process of spiritual unfoldment is a lifetime commitment — and it’s as natural as breathing in and breathing out.\u00a0 The commitment is not a confinement; it’s the doorway to freedom.\u00a0 If you give up too soon, you may miss a profound insight or discovery.\u00a0 It’s the same with doing spiritual exercises; every day can reveal something new to you.\u00a0 It’s so important to persevere past all of the rationalizations, fears, doubts, restlessness, worries, concerns, and misgivings.\u00a0 Persistence is a form of caring for ourselves and giving the gift of love to the one who matters the most.\u00a0 And when you are full of that loving, the inner gifts will naturally overflow to others without any effort.<\/p>\n

Every day, in every way, you are enough.\u00a0 Even though you may have habits you’d like to change, physical features you don’t like, or a mind that wanders when you want it to stay focused, who you really are shines forward more brightly than any judgments you hold against yourself.\u00a0 Have the courage to be you.<\/p>\n

Create enough love to accept every part of yourself.\u00a0 And as you give these gifts to yourself, the more you will receive.<\/p>\n

You are a portable gift ready to participate at any given moment.\u00a0 It may be giving a smile or being patient.\u00a0 While one person has the gift of laughter, another person blesses us with the silence and peace they exude.\u00a0 Each one of us is important!<\/p>\n

In this time of the renewal of the Christ Consciousness and our awareness of it, go inside and appreciate yourself and the gifts you have been given and the gifts you have to share.\u00a0 Be grateful for who you are.<\/p>\n

It is indeed a blessing that we have so much to share with each other.<\/p>\n

Baruch Bashan<\/p>\n

John-Roger<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“In this time of the renewal of the Christ Consciousness and our awareness of it, go inside and appreciate yourself and the gifts you have been given and the gifts you have to share.\u00a0 Be grateful for who you are.” – John-Roger This article by John-Roger was first published in Rod & Staff Christmas Issue, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":112160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-john-rogers-current-story"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112159\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/112160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.msia.org\/newdayherald\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}