Read on the ACIM CE App: https://acimce.app/:W-297
Lesson 297
Forgiveness is the only gift I give.
Practice Instructions
See complete instructions in a separate document. A short summary:
- Read the commentary paragraph slowly and personally.
- Pray the prayer, perhaps several times.
- Morning and evening: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
- Hourly remembrance: Repeat the idea and then spend time in Open Mind Meditation.
- Frequent reminders: Repeat the idea and then spend a quiet moment in meditation.
- Response to temptation: Repeat the idea whenever upset, to restore peace.
- Read the “What Is” section slowly and thoughtfully once during the day.
Practice suggestion: The opening lines of this lesson are pure gold. I find them very powerful if used as a kind of practice. Here is how I have done that. Pick a particular person in your life, especially someone important to you, and apply the following to him/her:
Forgiveness is the only gift I give,
(Think of seeing past that person’s flawed body and personality and seeing the pure Son of God in him/her.)
Because it is the only gift I want.
(Think about the guilt you feel in this relationship, about how much you want to feel forgiven for all your mistakes in the relationship.)
And everything I give I give myself.
(Feel your gift of forgiveness returning to you. Let yourself feel absolved from all your own mistakes in the relationship. See past your own flaws to the pure Son of God in you.)
I highly recommend doing this practice every hour today. It will bring wonderful benefits.
Commentary
What do I want to have? Whatever it is, to give it is the way to have it. And the more I grow, the more I realize that “Forgiveness…is the only gift I want” (1:1).
What can I possibly want more than absolute freedom from the burden of self-judgment? What can I possibly want besides this? To be free of self-condemnation is to acknowledge my perfection and completion as God created me. It is to recognize that nothing I have ever done, ever thought, or ever said has ever diminished, even in the slightest, my value and loveliness in God’s sight.
If this is what I want, let me give it today, because “everything I give I give [to] myself” (1:1). Let me extend this recognition to everyone I meet today, that nothing they have ever done, ever thought, or ever said has ever diminished, even in the slightest, their worth and value in my sight.
Every step in my salvation is already set (2:1). Nothing has been overlooked. There is no need to be restless or anxious, concerned about whether I will make it or when I will make it. I will. That is all I need to know. It is accomplished already, and I can travel this illusory journey in peace knowing that in reality it is already over.