Your true nature? Choose the better self
	Notes and references 3/12/2000 Your true nature? “Choose the better self!” Two men were walking by a brook and saw a scorpion drowning. One man bent over and cupped the soil and the water to try and save the scorpion. The scorpion stung him. He tried again and the scorpion stung him again. His friend said, “kill it, why are you trying to save it?” The man answered, “It is the scorpions nature to sting. He stings naturally. It can’t change its nature... I do have a choice and it is my nature to love. He bent over one more time and moved the scorpion to safety. What is you nature? Is it to be fearful, greedy, resentful, angry, confrontational or manipulative? You have a choice. Caleb had a choice in this weeks lesson. In the land that today we call West Palestine and for which 4000 years of battle have been fought there was a time when the land was to be divided you under what is called the Survey for the division of land. One survey attributed ownership to Joshua, another to a high priest also named Joshua and a third survey allotted the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. Moses, in obedience to Jewish law sent twelve spies out tot he twelve divisions of this land. One was Caleb. The other eleven spies were afraid and told Moses of giants that occupied the land in impregnable cities. They were greedy and wanted the land for themselves or they were fearful and didn’t want to pick a fight with a stronger enemy even thought they had legal possession. Only Caleb spoke from his “heart” as the Bible reads. He acknowledged problems with the Anakim with their fortified city but he also declared that God would help him to have what was rightfully his. He waited forty-five years to receive his inheritance. He stood up to Joshua and told him that he deserved the land. Joshua finally agreed and awarded Caleb based on his deserving. Here the story this week: Joshua 14 6 Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea. 7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh- barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart. 9 And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children's for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God. 10 And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old. 11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in. 13 And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance. It was Caleb’s nature to speak honestly from his heart and not do the expedient thing out of fear or worry or a sense of lack. Do you speak from your heart? Mis 262 When the heart speaks, however simple the words, its language is always acceptable to those who have hearts. It should therefore be plain that those who feel your touch will be drawn to you based on motive not on money, looks or popularity. You decision to honor your highest nature, your “better self” as Mrs. Eddy says, established your basis to heal. This is the mental preparation required. Look at these two citations, also from this weeks lesson: S&H 278 Which ought to be substance to us, — the erring, changing, and dying, the mutable and mortal, or the unerring, immutable, and immortal? A New Testament writer plainly describes faith, a quality of mind, as "the substance of things hoped for." S&H 325 A false sense of life, substance, and mind hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific demonstration. If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the way of God's appointing. There is a poem Mrs. Eddy wrote that talks about being rooted and grounded in love. Here it is: THE OAK ON THE MOUNTAIN'S SUMMIT Oh, mountain monarch, at whose feet I stand, — Clouds to adorn thy brow, skies clasp thy hand, — Nature divine, in harmony profound, With peaceful presence hath begirt thee round. And thou, majestic oak, from yon high place Guard'st thou the earth, asleep in night's embrace, — And from thy lofty summit, pouring down Thy sheltering shade, her noonday glories crown? Whate'er thy mission, mountain sentinel, To my lone heart thou art a power and spell; A lesson grave, of life, that teacheth me To love the Hebrew figure of a tree. Faithful and patient be my life as thine; As strong to wrestle with the storms of time; As deeply rooted in a soil of love; As grandly rising to the heavens above. Here is what Mrs. Eddy says about our “better self””: Pul 83 In our secret heart our better self is shamed and dishonored, and appeals from Philip drunk to Philip sober, but has not yet the moral strength and courage to prosecute the appeal. My 6 To abide in our unselfed better self is to be done forever with the sins of the flesh, the wrongs of human life, the tempter and temptation, the smile and deceit of damnation. When we have overcome sin in all its forms, men may revile us and despitefully use us, and we shall rejoice, "for great is [our] reward in heaven." Never be intimidated to do the expedient, the dishonest or the immoral. You have the right to choose your higher nature and claim it as your only true nature, the reflection of God, of Love. Stand up for what you believe and for what is right. Be like Caleb, speak from your heart.
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