Prayer Chaplain Corner
Greetings from your Prayer Chaplain Team
Years ago when I asked Mark, my Prayer Chaplain pal, how he benefits from prayer, his answer was (and continues to be) an inspiration to me. He said, “The more you pray, the more you know.” That sounds like a simple recipe for raising your spiritual awareness, but how do you do it? The answer is to form a prayer habit.
In studying the best way to form a habit, I discovered the Tiny Habits Method by B.J. Fogg, a behavior scientist at Stanford University. For the purpose of this article, I’ll present these tips in the context of becoming more prayerful. However, the Tiny Habits Method can be used to develop any kind of habit.
The foundation for your new habit has to be motivation. Prayer can’t be something that you think you should do. It has to be something that you actually want to do. In addition, it’s important to start small and simple. Having grandiose plans to pray and meditate twice a day for at least an hour will lead to overwhelm and your motivation will disappear. Instead, do the opposite. Set the bar really low. Make it so simple to start that you can easily maintain it. Here is a simplified prayer: Breathe in, God is. Breathe out, I Am. Make an affirmative statement. Amen. Here are some examples of affirmative statements: I am Divinely guided. I am healthy, whole, and well. I am grateful for… After a time, you may want to add more to your prayer practice. Go for it! Just remember that progress comes from starting small and staying consistent.
Repetition and consistency are the final components needed to develop your new prayer habit. The key is to insert prayer into one of your already-existing routines. Ask yourself where this habit might fit naturally into your life. Do you shower daily? Make shower time prayer time. Do you heat food in the microwave? Start the prayer when you press the start button. Do you watch TV? Make a pact with yourself that you can’t turn it on until you’ve said a prayer.
B.J. Fogg also studied the after-effects of forming a habit. He states that this new behavior becomes integrated into who you are in such a way that you experience an identity shift. When you pray every day, you see yourself as a more spiritual person. You feel more connected to God. As Mark says—when you pray more, you know more. Therefore, you are a genius!
Rene Holubec
Unity Prayer Chaplain Team
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
Mountain Mover No.1 . . .
WHEN I AM CONFUSED by Charles Roth
As we tread our individual paths through life we are sometimes diverted into side-roads where we feel lost and confused. We seek the advice of others, or we sit and “stew”, mentally sketching images of failure and defeat. “If only I knew,” we cry. “If only” is the hallmark of the confused, bewildered human mind.
In Truth we are training ourselves to step out of the “if only” consciousness, and into the security of the Christ Light. You may seem to be in a tunnel of darkness, unable to see your next step. But every tunnel has an end and if you look with your heart you shall “see” that Light which signifies hope and victory. It may be only a pin- point of light at first; but it will grow as you keep your vision centered on the Christ within you. Say the fol-lowing prayer statement to yourself until you get the “feel” of it and then speak it aloud—quietly, but with conviction and faith:
I Turn to the Christ Within For Inspiration and Guidance
. . . I am a spiritual being, one with the Mind of God in which resides all wisdom. Just as a lost and bewildered child turns to his parent for guidance when faced with a new and baffling experience; so I turn eagerly and trustingly to the Infinite One within. Through the Christ in me, the Father’s Image-like-
ness, I receive new confidence, new understanding and new strength. Inspiration floods my mind and I know what to do.
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
Unity’s Used Book Store
Did you know we have a used book store in the Fellowship Hall, Hard cover books are just $2 and soft covers are $1. Wow, there is a wide selection of books in this used book store! It’s not our lending library, but the over flow of books from the Lending Library! Take a peek you might like what you C
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
A Christmas Blessing
From Schuyler Cronley – Notes of a Skylark
C hrist is the head of your life. B lest be the tie that binds us
H eavenly joy for the season. L ove and light the freeing bond
R iches more abundantly measured. E ternal truth the blessed evidence
I nfinitely more than man’s reason. S ecuring the promised beyond
S inging “Joy to the World” and S ing out your praises, declare
T o All Whom You Meet I n faith, I no longer fear
M ay Your blessings be many N ow through Christ I’m Reborn
A nd your joy, full, complete G odlike – His Image My Mirror
S ecurely enfolded in him S o be your heart’s desire.
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
Unity’s Used Book Store
Did you know we have a used book store in the Fellowship Hall, Hard cover books are just $2 and soft covers are $1. Wow, there is a wide selection of books in this used book store! It’s not our lending library, but the over flow of books from the Lending Library! Take a peek you might like what you C
JJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJJ
You Know This - Words of a Skylark
Apples come from apple trees. Roses grow on roses bushes. If a gardener wants carrots, he plants carrots seeds and not radishes or onions. All through life it has been proven that there is a spiritual and a natural law of life that causes all things to produce after their kind. Although Jesus Christ taught it a couple of thousands years ago, man is only now, at first regretfully and then joyfully, discovering this Truth. He discovers that each thought he holds, and each word he speaks, is governed by this very same law. Words of love and kindness never produce hate and inconsideration. You are the boss of your life, if you really want to be.