January 13, 2008
Carol Ann Preston

Inspiration: motivation, incentive, enlightenment, illumination, brainstorm, vision, etc.

Practicing the discipline of prayer and meditation for over 26 years I have been willing to learn and grow as Ilearn to listen and recognize inspiration and to follow God’s Spirit as the source to inspire my daily life. Today I rely on Spirit’s inspiration and more readily recognize the difference between ego inspired thoughts and those that are in harmony with the Spirit of Christ and these have a foundation of love, joy, perseverance and discipline. I have found one consistent theme and that is Love.

Some examples where I have experienced inspiration have often been the simplest ones that I hear at the beginning of the day, when I am uncertain what I am to do that day, ‘get up and do the next right thing.’ Sometimes I am inspired to clean house, other times I am inspired to write, make phone calls, write letters, or take a walk. These are the simple and what seems to be ordinary inspirations of my daily life, although in the beginning there was no such thing as ordinary inspiration, as my spirit was starved for inspired thoughts, something that was not focused on me. It has been through many spiritual awakenings, practicing disciplined prayer and meditation in my life that ushers into my mind inspired thoughts at various times of the day. Beginning with a committed, disciplined relationship with Christ, I also committed to follow His lead, as I am directed, on a ‘need to know basis.’ In doing so, inspired thoughts and opportunities of service have increased as I also continue to practice examination of conscious and watch for 'ego' that would deceive me.

Sometimes I wake up at 3:00AM and I am inspired to get up and pray for others. Sometimes I am inspired during my time of prayer who to pray for, but many times I pray for people in general, and I pray for about an hour and then go back to bed. In the early years of listening to inspiration, I was also growing in my trust in God’s Spirit to guide me throughout the day and I began to experience seemingly simple guidance as I practiced the discipline of ‘listening.’ I learned that discipline and trust is a key component in my being inspired. I had become willing to follow as He led, on a need to know basis. And this simple attitude works well in my harmonious relationship with God. Knowing He his part is to lead and mine is to follow.

One early afternoon I was on my way home from work, having worked late the night before I was afforded the privilege to go home early and I looked forward to taking a much needed nap before my children came home from school. A block before our home, the thought came to my mind to drive to my daughter’s school and pick her up. I argued back and forth in my head as I considered my desire to take a quick nap and I did not want to go anywhere else. But, this inspiration did not stop; over and over in my head was the same instruction, "Go to your daughters school." After relenting, sensing this instruction was an opportunity of trusting discipline, I followed and made a left turn at the stoplight and drove straight to her school.

I parked along the driveway, where there were plenty of other parents in their cars waiting for their children. This was Jr. High and since I saw plenty of students lingering out front I assumed the school bell had already dismissed students for the day. With parents sitting in their car I noticed there was no school faculty out front with the students. I thought this was odd and then saw a large gathering of students off to the front side of the school building. Recalling Jr. High myself, I sensed this meant trouble. I got out of my car and walked into a circle of students and heard, "Mom" loud and clear and noticed my daughter was one of those on the outside of the circle with the other kids. There were two pre-teen young girls in the middle of this circle who were about to start fighting. I mean physically fighting, with a large gathering of other students surrounding and encouraging them. I noticed that one of my daughter’s best friends was in the middle of this soon to be fight. "Where were all the teachers?" I thought to myself. I yelled out my daughter’s and her girlfriend’s name and with authority told them both to follow me and get in my car, ‘NOW!’ With no argument, the girls quickly followed me and jumped into the backseat of my car, with no word spoken by anyone until we had pulled away from the school. "What was going on?" I asked. I was told that my daughter’s friend was about to fight another, much stronger and bigger girl from school as she had made this girl mad and had known she would be hurt in a fight, and so on. She was greatly relieved to having had an option out of the fight. I thought silently to my self, "God knew there would be no faculty out front when this fight would have occurred, and someone called out to Him for help, and I was able to ‘hear’ an opportunity to be His instrument of service."

The girls wanted to know why I was there, since it was not customary for me to pick my children up from school. I told them about the inspired thought that came to my thoughts and told them that their guardian angels were looking out for them that day and to thank God for His ever-presence, and reminded them that all areas of our lives matter to God. Arriving home, I allowed myself a time of peace and quiet prayer and meditation, never forgetting this example to follow persistent inspiration, even when I do not know the why of it all.

The last example I would like to share, is when my young cousin died. One early morning, during my prayer and meditation time, I sensed that I needed to drive the following day and visit my aunt and uncle. I told my husband, noticed that I had no previous commitments, and packed for the following days 4 hour drive. I went about my day as normal, and went to bed with plans to spend one to two days with my relatives.

The following morning, after I had begun my day, I received a phone call early from my mother. She told me that my cousin had drowned the day before, as he worked on a barge in the Gulf of Mexico and it had taken on water, and my cousin did not survive. She told me that it would be at least a day before she could put her affairs in order to make the drive to her brother’s home, and asked me if I could drive to stay with them until she could get there.

I told her that I was already packed, and about the inspired thoughts to go and visit my aunt and uncle the day before. When she called, I was already dressed and packed, ready to go, ready to be of service to my aunt and uncle who had just been notified that their only son had drowned. Leaving grieving parents, a sister, a young widow and 3 young children to pray for and minister too.

As I drove the next few hours, I talked to God the entire way, with a grateful heart that I had been called to be a channel for His love, and grateful that I had learned to listen and follow directions, even when I did not know why. I was grateful that my husband had become accustomed to inspired thoughts and avenues of service and that he supports my efforts. I was allowed the privilege of serving my grieving aunt and uncle, and assisting in the preparation of a memorial service for my cousin, utilizing years of experience in supporting the grieving, to now give to my family.

God guides me toward acts of love, consideration and kindness to those around me, with an attitude of care and respect. God’s creation benefits from inspired thoughts that I recognize and act upon and through service I have discovered joy to be the source of my happiness.

May you be blessed with inspired guidance and experience the joy of serving with love,
Carol Ann Preston

www.roomforhealing.com
www.take12radio.com
Remembering Who We Are: a workbook by Carol Ann Preston

Inspiration - Jody K.

I shared at a meeting last night that it’s almost as though the thoughts in my head pre-sobriety came from a completely different person who has the thoughts in my head today. A long-timer said there’s a term for that: god-consciousness. When I respond with kindness instead of irritation, I’m inspired. When I think in terms of solutions to a problem rather than wallowing in the problem itself, I’m inspired. When I consider the feelings of others and how my speech and actions affect them, I’m inspired. When I tell the truth when a lie would be easier, I’m inspired. When I’m recognizing my connectedness to all things, rather than thinking in terms only of myself, I’m inspired.

I believe it was Emmet Fox who described the difference between prayer, meditation and contemplation. If I spend enough time practicing prayer (speaking) and meditation (listening), I will eventually come to a state of contemplation (conversation). That’s the ultimate inspiration. Being the human that I am, it’s good for me to share these inspired thoughts with someone else, as I am fallible and can mistake the voices of my conscience (or the voice of my HP) for my own selfish desires. If I am walking in prayer, and if I am keeping my motives pure, I can in time come to rely upon this two-way communication. And, again, being human, I will ask for human things, I will make selfish requests, and the response from my HP is in the realization that these things are not necessarily good for me or good for others.

I can be willful. I can want what I want, when I want it, and in this way, I block that two-way communication. If I have made a decision to turn my will and my life over to a Power greater than myself, I must trust that Power in all things. To use my free will improperly and turn my thoughts to more selfish things denies that I am in the hands of that Power, and at that point, I have to rely on what I have all alone, without any help, and that’s not much. I proved that to myself over the first thirty-four years of my life. I take over, inspiration leaves me.

I must say in closing that I’m not very far along on this journey, and inspiration at this point is a little like my favorite radio station. When I drive through town and the buildings around me block the signal, I hear static, and sometimes, the station cuts out all together. When it’s coming in clear, I don’t always like the song that’s playing, and I might be tempted to change the channel, but I know that if I keep listening, the DJ will eventually start playing something else. And there are times that I’m out on the winding country roads, enjoying the scenery and feeling the progress toward my destination, and my absolute favorite song will come on. At those times, I crank the stereo as high as it will go and have a ball just singing along.

"The Big Book states: "Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration." (Alcoholics Anonymous page 87) What are some examples of inspiration in your thinking?"

I am inspired by my work at the World Ministry of Prayer. I pray daily with 45 to 75 people from all over the world. My thinking is inspired by each caller coming together in the safe place of affirmative prayer. Together we call forth their highest good. The love, healing and goodwill exchanged during these calls is positively life changing.

Creative leadership and expression is very inspiring. I am frequently privileged to witness creative intelligence in others and find inspiration in the ways natural leaders express their talents. I recently met a man who inspired me greatly in the first ten minutes of our conversation. I could feel the intelligence, know-how and receptivity to creative collaboration within the person and it made our ideas and conversation soar. We decided to partner and work together!

I am accepting more good to come through me. I do this in meditation. I sit and ask spirit for guidance and a larger vision of service. The expansion shows up as more money, more clients, more fun work opportunities in larger arenas than ever before. I am inspired that I can simply ask God and walk in the universal YES.

This next inspiration might sound crazy. But my thinking gets an inspirational uplift when I experience "chick in the egg" syndrome. What I mean is , when it looks like my sky is falling, when my life structures begin falling apart I affirm bigger horizons. Like the chick in the egg, I only know there are cracks and fissures in my small world. It looks and can feel bad. But what the chick doesn't know is the crack in the egg allows it to birthed into a greater experience. The chick goes from small egg world to be born into mother earth world - a whole lot larger. This is true for us, too. When the relationships, job, finances, etc. appear to be falling apart, we are coming into a larger living experience. If we focus our attention to see the good, the next highest level of our consciousness of life is born and we get to be new again ... and bigger. Bigger and better relations, more exciting work, more money to put into circulation. So let your small world fall apart and continue in spiritual practice.

Finally, stillness and quiet work for me. I just walked for 30 minutes. The entire neighborhood is freshly clean from torrential rains. No one is about. It is still and fresh and clean and quiet. My heart begins to sing and I find myself smiling. I am inspirationally nourished in stillness and quiet.

Gail DeWitt
www.conscious-contact.com

Inspired Thought

"The Big Book states: "Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration." (Alcoholics Anonymous page 87) What are some examples of inspiration in your thinking?"

It is important I should think to reflect upon two aspects of this statement from page 87. First, it is from the chapter titled “Into Action.” Second, the action upon which the author is focused is that of initiating communion with God. The paragraph from which this comes actually starts on page 86 (3rd Ed.) and clearly states that, “we are asking God for inspiration.”

As a grade AAA, all American, pure bred alcoholic and addict whose disease is centered in my mind, rooted in selfishness, self-pity, pain, fear, and anger it is not difficult to discern that any thought contrary to those seemingly natural and instinctive thought processes that focus on me, mine, and more are indeed inspired from a divine source.

Inspired thought seemingly always takes me towards something new, something not considered beforehand. Early in recovery it dawned on me that since most everything I had done previously had not worked very well, and in fact, had often led to disaster; perhaps just the opposite thought / action would subsequently lead to a more pleasant or desirable end. This was perhaps the first of many inspired thoughts; it has generally proven to be an absolute truth.

An area of utmost importance for my growth has been the revelation knowledge that we have all been taught not just half-truths, but outright lies that are commonly accepted as truth. Two primary examples of this are: One, you cannot love someone else, until you love yourself. And two, we should not become so spiritually minded that we are of no earthly good. On the surface these seem to make perfect sense; we believe them because we have heard them over and over from the authorities in our life.

It is only upon close inspection that these very subtle lies begin to unravel. If we wait to love ourselves before loving others, then we always fall short. To love ones self requires that we be lovable. It is the disciplined, committed, and consistent act of loving others that promotes lovability. Simply said, as we love others, we become lovable. We find that not only do others respond to us in love, but that as we extend and promote love, we are able to truly love ourselves. This self-love will manifest in making healthy, positive life choices that are always nurturing, uplifting, encouraging, and growth producing.

Experiential knowledge and history have clearly proven that as a person becomes more and more spiritually minded, they in fact become more and more effective on this earthly, physical plane. Examples of this truth can be clearly seen in the lives of Mahatma Gandhi, Saint Francis, Jesus, Gautama Buddha, and many others. If you have the desire to become an effective, life changing agent in this world, then the path to follow is of a spiritual nature. It is upon the spiritual path that you will find the divine success principles needed to realize the full potential within you. It is the realization of the Power Packed Potential within that always leads to the highest levels of effectiveness.

Perhaps the most wonderfully profound inspired thought that I have had revolves around the greatest of all gifts; choice. Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying that, “most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be.” This is a tremendous truth. Our realities are completely determined by the choices we make. Not only do we choose the path we will follow, whether to turn left or right, but even more importantly we choose how we will perceive our circumstances. It was not until I stopped moaning and groaning, crying and complaining, whimpering and whining about how hard life was and began to face life’s challenges, recognizing them as character builders that were meant to strengthen, not defeat me that life became a true joy rather than a drudge of one misery after another. By choosing my perceptions of life I went from a victim of seemingly meaningless circumstances to a person of responsibility. I became a person who lives by choice, according to the highest moral and ethical principles that I possibly can. This provided for me, a sense of freedom that had previously remained hidden.