God the Father on Father’s Day

This is the eighth in a series of 10 weekly articles that will focus on selected lessons from A Course in Miracles (ACIM): Workbook for Students. There are 365 lessons in the workbook that are meant to be completed daily over the course of a full year, but I will only be focusing on 10 of those 365 lessons.

This week's lesson was chosen in honor of Father's Day this weekend. Many people will soon be celebrating their father with love, but Father's Day also brings up intense conflict for people whose father (whether biological, adoptive, step, or foster) was absent, neglectful, harshly critical, or even abusive. Could that conflict be a reason why about 20% fewer calls are made on Father's Day than Mother's Day?

The ACIM Workbook offers a unifying perspective for all people on Father's Day, whether they were blessed with wonderful fathers or not. Lesson #224 is, "God is my Father, and He loves His Son."

This lesson brings all people of all backgrounds and all generations together under the sheltering love of the Divine. Within that all-encompassing love, there is no envy, no regret, no hard feelings, no pain, and no judgment. There is only Love, because the Divine is Love. Here are some additional thoughts from ACIM:

--- "You who have been unmerciful to yourself do not remember your Father's Love.... Yet it is forever true. In shining peace within you is the perfect purity in which you were created. Fear not to look upon the lovely truth in you. Look through the cloud of guilt that dims your vision, and look past darkness to the holy place where you will see the light."

--- "Place honor where it is due, and peace will be yours. It is your inheritance from your real Father."

--- "The Father has given you all that is His, and He Himself is yours with them."

--- "The Atonement is but the way back to what was never lost. Your Father could not cease to love His Son."

--- "And suddenly time will be over, and we will all unite in the eternity of God the Father."

God is your Father, and He loves you!

To read other motivational and inspirational thoughts throughout the day, follow me at Twitter.com/DrDebBrown