Message from Light of God Ministry
Good Day and Blessings!
“All you need is love, love, love is all you need” is a truism with which we can relate. When The Beatles presented this song many years ago, I connected to these words on such a deep level. It was easy to visualize a world where all is on the same love page. As youth, we talked world love and soon realized that love is not something that we can establish in a global mindfulness.
But through love, as individuals, we can make a huge difference in the lives of those with whom we connect in our daily life. It takes awareness and compassion to the needs of others in order to connect with their soul and to observe the self in another. There is not a separation of us and them, there is just us, together whirling through the cosmos on a finite basis. All we have is love.
With Love
Rev. Mary White
FAMILY FUN WITH BRENDA PIELLE
Dear Parents, Families and Friends,
How have you been feeling lately? These foggy gray days have the potential to contribute to some low mood feelings for us and for the children, youth, and young adults in our families. I like the mental health awareness commercials that have been on TV lately that say, "it's okay to not be okay." The ads go further to encourage each of us to talk about our feelings, and to listen to others when they share their thoughts and feelings.
I feel encouraged when I see more daylight already and when I experience the beauty around us in nature and remember how much God loves us. The songs this week speak to this message.
On the parent-tot video you will find: The More We Sing Together, The Wheels on the Bus, The People on the Bus, Oh Mister Sun, God Loves Me and a book called, Kindness Makes Us Stronger.
The Family Fun video has a story called How the Sun Got to Coco's House, and these songs: Abundantly, Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow, I Am Somebody, The Unicorn, and I'll Do My Best.
Enjoy singing along!
Brenda Pielle
Reaching Out to Families
Powell River United Church
Reading: Power for Life
By David Sharp “Day 29”
God, what would you have me say and do today?
Be like a mountain standing in the blue sky. Make love a strength in your being today. Stand up for those you love; for those who need your strength and support. With your words, give others beauty and light, warmth and comfort. Today you are strong enough to protect others’ needs. Do not think about yourself. Let your resolve stand you above the goings-on of the day. Rise into divinity when you feel yourself becoming self-centred or needy. Maintain your high resolve to stay in the light; remain in the sunshine of love, grace, care, and compassion. Breathe in fresh air, and bask in the breezes of love, understanding, patience, gentleness, and goodness. Stand with and look out for those you come in contact with today: those you love, and those you do not know. Root yourself in the ground of divinity and gain the resources to live into this today. Should this guidance become difficult, don’t give up. Rise up. Will you do this today?
Poem: Love Song by Henry Dumas
Beloved,
I have to adore the earth:
The wind must have heard your voice once.
It echoes and sings like you.
The soil must have tasted you once.
It is laden with your scent.
The trees honor you in gold
and blush when you pass.
I know why the north country is frozen.
It has been trying to preserve
your memory.
I know why the desert burns with fever.
It was wept too long without you.
On hands and knees,
the ocean begs up the beach,
and falls at your feet.
I have to adore
the mirror of the earth.
You have taught her well
how to be beautiful.
In-Person Worship Services are Temporarily Cancelled Due to Covid Safety Concerns
When our hearts are small, our understanding and compassion are limited, and we suffer. We can’t accept or tolerate others and their shortcomings, and we demand that they change. But when our hearts expand, these same things don’t make us suffer anymore. We have a lot of understanding and compassion and can embrace others. We accept others as they are, and then they have a chance to transform.
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When we feed and support our own happiness, we are nourishing our ability to love. That’s why to love means to learn the art of nourishing our happiness.
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Understanding someone’s suffering is the best gift you can give another person. Understanding is love’s other name. If you don’t understand, you can’t love.
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If our parents didn’t love and understand each other, how are we to know what love looks like? … The most precious inheritance that parents can give their children is their own happiness. Our parents may be able to leave us money, houses, and land, but they may not be happy people. If we have happy parents, we have received the richest inheritance of all.
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Often, we get crushes on others not because we truly love and understand them, but to distract ourselves from our suffering. When we learn to love and understand ourselves and have true compassion for ourselves, then we can truly love and understand another person.
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Sometimes we feel empty; we feel a vacuum, a great lack of something. We don’t know the cause; it’s very vague, but that feeling of being empty inside is very strong. We expect and hope for something much better so we’ll feel less alone, less empty. The desire to understand ourselves and to understand life is a deep thirst. There’s also the deep thirst to be loved and to love. We are ready to love and be loved. It’s very natural. But because we feel empty, we try to find an object of our love. Sometimes we haven’t had the time to understand ourselves, yet we’ve already found the object of our love. When we realize that all our hopes and expectations of course can’t be fulfilled by that person, we continue to feel empty. You want to find something, but you don’t know what to search for. In everyone there’s a continuous desire and expectation; deep inside, you still expect something better to happen. That is why you check your email many times a day!
PRUC Online Worship Service
Please Join us this Sunday, January 30th
P R A Y E R by Roddy Hamilton
Love is…
Love is… hugs
Love is… a pick me up
Love is… when two become one
Love is… friendship
Love is… sharing the last piece of pizza
Love is… hard to explain
Love is… unbelievable
Love is… unpredictable
Love is… giving away your last Rollo
Love is… endless
Love is… protection
Love is… a rollercoaster
Love is… a smile
Love is… a heartbeat
Love is… patient
Love is… kind
Love is… a never ending story
Love is… eternal
Love is… a circle of friends
Love is… a circle of eternity
Love is… a circle called God
Love is… all you need
Amen
Powell River United Church, 6932 Crofton Street, Powell River, BC, V8A 5H4, Canada