Our second day of Messiah kindergarten begins with a review of the most important lesson of all for Messiahs:

I have told you before not to think for yourself. … I say to you, practice with Me today. Do not think for yourself. Ask Me in all things and leave all things to Me.

Today’s reading focuses on love and forgiveness. The tips on how to forgive are exquisite. Read slowly. Take today’s reading deeply into your heart, all the way up to and including the very last paragraph. Don’t miss a thing.

After you have read the reading once, you may want to read it again. It might also be helpful to take notes. Anything you can do to remember today’s reading is helpful, because you must remember it before you can put it into practice.

One teaching from today’s reading is how to be with another when there is a difference or disagreement that needs to be addressed. Often, when we rely on the inner Teacher, we are guided to drop our point of view and let the other have his way. However, sometimes a situation needs to be faced. Today’s reading shares specific instructions on how to do that.

Also, clarity is brought to a common spiritual confusion through today’s reading. Since spiritual students often confuse themselves with the body-personality-mind, they sometimes think that they are personally responsible for everything they experience. For example, if a relative is a mean alcoholic, they think healing their mind will also heal the relative.

When we heal our minds, grace is generated through the creative principle, but whether that grace affects our alcoholic cousin or something else in the world is beyond our control and concern. Many factors feed into the creative principle to determine how grace affects the picture of the world.

As today’s reading says:

Do not be confused. You are not responsible for your brother’s place, but if you cannot forgive him his place, you are lost from yours.

If we experience any upset regarding another person, it is our opportunity for healing. However, the purpose of healing isn’t to change the other person. It is for our own awakening, an awakening that is helpful to consciousness as a whole.

(For related information, reference the tips for ACIM Workbook Lessons 345 and 353.)

I remember a story Adyashanti told once. He had an awakening. When he told his teacher about the awakening, she said, “Good. You are a baby Buddha now.” ~ha ha~

Well, we are baby Messiahs, and like all babies, we need to be taught. That is how we are to see today’s reading. It is part of that teaching. Our role is to listen very carefully, and then put the teaching into practice.

Today’s message is very clear:

Thinking for yourself is not the way to understanding, …

We are to become reliant on the inner Teacher for understanding. Instead of being caught up in the happenings of the world, we are to ask the inner Teacher, “How is this helpful to me?” Or we could ask, “How shall I see this?” “What would you have me learn from this?” “How shall I understand this?” “What am I not seeing that I need to see?” Etcetera.

We are to go to the inner Teacher about everything that confuses us, upsets us, frightens us, or appears to cause guilt or a sense of unworthiness in us. Like a baby who knows nothing at all, let the inner Teacher teach right understanding of everything you experience.

Pay attention to the tips in today’s reading. There are only a few, but they are each very important. Consider today’s reading to be the first day of kindergarten for baby Messiahs. Imagine another young child sitting in your class with you, a little boy named Jesus. Notice how interested he is in the teaching. Notice how the teaching thrills him, and he eagerly takes in every word. Give yourself to the teaching just like he does. He’s a good role model.