From Celebrate Yourself! by Eric Butterworth:
“As whole beings, we are masculine and feminine and a well-adjusted life demands a balance between the two . . . .
The missing link in the affairs of people and nations today can only be bridged by the activity of the divine feminine.
There is a great need for the universal emancipation of the qualities of love and forgiveness and kindness and patience and faith and prayer.
Declare your freedom by affirming: I am a whole creature In God. I walk and work in wisdom and good judgment, and I now let God’s perfect love have its way in and through me.
With this balance of love and wisdom, I am an integrated expression of the activity of God. I am free and relaxed and successful. I am a radiating center of peace and harmony in the world”
Responsive Reading for Sunday, February 3
“God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). “It is not good for man[kind] to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for [and within] him . . .“ (Gen. 2:18).
Love’s not a contest, it’s just who we are.
Jonathan was the son of King Saul, who was jealous of David’s popularity. Instead of being rivals to become the next king, Jonathan and David were true partners and friends. “Jonathan had become as fond of David as if his life depended on him; he loved him as he loved himself . . . . And Jonathan entered into a bond with David, because he loved him as himself” (I. Samuel 18:1-3).
Love is not a battle or a race between rivals. When love wins, we all win.
The widow, Naomi, decided to leave Moab and return to her home in Bethlehem. She told her widowed daughter in law to stay and live in Moab, but Ruth said, "Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! for wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16).
I don’t lose my center in the push and the shove. I simply surrender and tune into love.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, (love) is not pompous, it is not inflated, it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (I. Cor. 13:4-8).
We could just quit fighting and let love win. All’s well in the end. Love wins.