Here’s as segment from one of Anne’s lessons:
“Another of Emmet Fox’s stories is entitled “Is It Selfish”.
I think that’s a question people ask frequently, is it selfish to
pray for yourself?
I teach everybody, pray for yourself first.
The quote that I love the most from a man named John Rankin who was a minister,
and I heard this on a tape many years ago, “A perfect light going through a
perfect wire cannot make a perfect shining ray through a dirty light bulb.”
If you think about that, you realize that we have to make ourselves that clear
light bulb.
We have to get rid of anything that’s frustrating us or bothering us or
irritating us in order to be able to help other people.
If we pray for ourselves first, we’re going to clear out our lives.
Our lives are going to become better because that’s how you pray for yourself
You pray for health, you pray for happiness, you pray for clarity in
whatever you’re doing, you pray for inspiration, you pray for harmony, you pray
for love, all of these things that come into play that you’re doing for other
people, you also need to be doing for yourself.
You come first.
If you’re not the clear light bulb, you’re not going to be able to help other
people.
You’re also not going to be able to help yourself.
You’re not going to be able to help your family or your children, so I think it
very urgent that people pray for themselves and there’s no such thing as selfishness in doing it.
That’s a religious spin, if you will, on a psychological concept, too.
People need to take care of themselves, get enough sleep, make enough
money, so that they can then help whoever it was that they want to.
We need to redefine the word selfish. We need to change it to mean: take care of yourself so you can take care of others.
What would you define self-centered as?
Self-centered is people who take care of others before they take care of
themselves.
We do need to be more selfish. I think a lot of people act unselfish to themselves like, “oh, I’m only thinking about you”, but it really is so that they feel good or look good and that’s not the proper use of the word selfish, either.
People who are taking care of somebody else and are doing it are usually
working on a guilt trip. They want to make you feel as if they were taking
care of this and they’re having to do in order to give to you and that’s not a good way, either, because guilt trips never help anybody.
Then you end up with more anger inside of you and that defeats everything that we’ve been trying to teach people.
Try being more selfish now that you have an understanding of what that means.
Terrie
