I Want to be More Loving in My Heart
I’ve been wanting to share a poem with you since early last week, but I never got around to posting it. Last night, I got the funniest reminder to do so. I was driving my 3-year-old home from school and he said, “Mommy, what do you want to be when you grow up?” I said, without hesitation, “I want to be more loving.” He said, “That doesn’t have a uniform!” He went on to tell me he was going to be a race car driver because he likes the outfit. Hilarious.
After I stopped laughing, I realized how profound what he said was. So many of us respond with a type of job or success in the world when someone asks us a question like, “Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?” We think of things that have a “uniform” (professional dress code) or things that will make us appear to others as being more successful in the world. We talk about the material things we want to acquire, degrees we’d like to get, titles we want to add to our name, places we want to visit, etc.
What if we all responded, “I want to be more loving…I want to see beauty in all things…I want to see the light in all situations…I want to be more peaceful…I want to forgive more” Wouldn’t that be something? These are all things that you don’t have to apply for, get credentialed in, go to school for years to achieve, spend thousands of dollars on, get a loan for, etc. These are things you can start to do right now.
Last week, I was guided to read some material by Howard Thurman. He was Martin Luther King, Jr’s spiritual advisor and mentor. I had been reading much of Martin Luther King, Jr’s old speeches and papers throughout the year and have been so inspired by them. We learn in school about the “I Have a Dream” speech, which is truly awesome in its own right, but he had so many other powerful writings on spiritual truth, many of which were inspired by Howard Thurman. The common theme throughout their work can be summed up as, “We are all one in God.”
Thurman was among the first people to say, “I am not Christian, I am a follower of Jesus” This was a bold and radical statement at the time, particularly coming from an African-American man. I was so inspired by that because I have come to a simlar place in my spiritual walk. Less dogma, more walking the talk. I sometimes feel like I am in a small minority who share this belief in my community, so it was inspiring to read work like this from someone who played such a significant role in the civil rights movement. His book Jesus and the Disinherited has brought me to new heights. Martin Luther King, Jr. thought it was so good that he carried it with him everywhere, and he would read it before he gave major speeches or when to important meetings. I can see why. I truly look forward to reading even more of his work.
While listening to a talk by Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith last week, he mentioned a poem by Thurman entitled, “More Loving in My Heart” which came from his book The Inward Journey. It’s such a powerful piece, I had to share it. I pray that it inspires you, as it has inspired me, to focus less on the “uniform” and more on what’s inside. May your daily interactions be flooded with love!
More Loving in My Heart by Howard Thurman
I want to be more loving in my heart. I want to be more loving.
Often there are good and sufficient reasons for exercising what seems a clean, direct resentment. Again and again I find it hard to hold in check the sharp retort, the biting comeback when it seems that someone has done violence to my self respect and decent regard. How natural it seems to give as good as I get, to take nothing lying down, to announce to all and sundry in a thousand ways that no one can run over me and get away with it.
All this is part of the thicket in which my heart gets caught again and again. Deep within me, I want to be more loving in my heart. To glow with a warmth that will take the chill off a room which I share with those whose lives touch mine in the traffic of my goings and comings. I want to be more loving.
I want to be more loving in my heart. It is often easy to have the idea in mind, to plan to be more loving, to see it with the mind and give ascent to the thought of being loving. This is crystal clear. But I want to be more loving in my heart. I must feel like loving. I must ease the tension in my heart that ejects the sharp barb, the stinging word.
I want to be more loving in my heart, that with unconscious awareness and deliberate intent I shall be a kind, a gracious human being. Thus those who walk the path with me may find it easier to be loving, to be gracious because of the love of God which is increasingly expressed in my living. I want to be more loving in my heart.
Keep shining!
~Kandace
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Kandace Jones
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BLOG: http://kandacejones.wordpress.com
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About the Author: Kandace Jones
I used to live life shackled by fear, doubt, and worry. I put on a happy face while navigating my day-to-day duties, but I was emotionally drained, stressed, and unhappy. When I hit rock bottom, and was diagnosed with depression and anxiety, I was determined to live life differently. I knew there had to be another way. Out of that determination, and guidance from Spirit, the "Living in the Light" blog was born. It documents my spiritual journey out of the darkness and into the Light. After nine months of publicly sharing my journey, and consciously releasing my attachment to the ego, I experienced a powerful spiritual awakening. I went from living in fear, doubt, worry, and stress to complete inner peace. My greatest passion has become assisting others on their own journey to inner peace.
My spiritual memoir, From Stress to Peace: An Intimate Journal on the Journey from Living in Darkness to Living in the Light, is available now on Amazon and BN.com. Click the tabs at the top of the page to learn more about the From Stress to Peace 21-Day Challenge, Living in the Light Retreats, 1:1 sessions, and the Living in the Light Community - all of which are designed to support your journey to inner peace. I appreciate you taking the time to visit the blog and look forward to supporting you in any way I can!