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SearchWhat are ACIM's views on motherhood/parenthood, and how can I deepen my spiritual journey while raising a child?
Question:
I have had several new developments in my "life" recently, one being that I am expecting a baby. I am in my 7th month. As you can imagine this has been a very exciting and challenging time in my life on many levels. I would definitely say that many of my unconscious belief systems are coming up to be unlearned. It has been painful to be quite honest but joyful also. When the fears and pain come up I continually pray and ask for guidance from the Spirit within. I guess I would like your thoughts on the experience of motherhood/parenthood and how the Course sees it. And also how to continue to deepen my walk with Spirit while also "raising" a child.
Answer:
Thanks for sharing what is on your heart and for your willingness to use everything for Awakening. Everything that seems to happen in this world is truly just a backdrop to allow the ego's unconscious belief system to come up and be unlearned. Rest assured that all things work together for good and chance plays no part in salvation from illusions. While some spiritual traditions emphasize going off to a monastery or a convent or to the woods or mountains, the Course is a path that involves releasing judgments and grievances in the context of mind, including what appears in awareness as perceived interpersonal relationships. Motherhood and parenthood are aspects of personhood, and this is the construct one is freed of in Enlightenment. The Holy Spirit uses the symbols of the little make-believe "self" and gently Guides the mind into broadening vistas of consciousness. You are far more than a mother or parent, yet this backdrop of parenting will be a rich opportunity for the undoing of the Authority problem. You will behold the forgiven world.
This world was the belief that it is possible to author a self different from the Christ Self that God creates Eternally in Spirit. The simple word for this insane belief is pride. Pride is false authorship. God is the only True Parent or Author, the Creator of Reality. And so it can be said that "parenting" with relation to bodies and body thoughts is the opportunity for the undoing of pride. The path before you is filled with many, many seeming opportunities to release the belief in self-authorship and control, the belief that a body can be a separate self that can be a "separate, unique individual." The body symbolizes the belief in private minds with private thoughts, which IS the ego. Yet given over to the Holy Spirit the path before you is a rapid undoing of every scrap of ego pride and control and resistance.
A child is a mirror of what you believe you are, as long as the belief in differences persists in awareness. A child is an ancient unconscious belief system coming up into awareness to be unlearned. To love as God Loves, unconditionally, the obstacles to the awareness of Love's Presence must be exposed and released. A child presents the opportunities to forgive every seeming grievance in the sleeping mind, so that Divine Love can be expressed without doubt or reservation or limit. This is a moment of gratitude and Joy, for Now can the lesson be learned that there is no concept to hide and no concept to protect from the Healing Light of the Holy Spirit. Now can the mind be emptied of every opinion and judgment it sought to lay upon itself. For Innocence is real, and the Christ Child within is ever Innocent of error. Accept the Christ Child within by becoming willing to behold the Perfect One and completely unwilling to behold error of any kind. When you see that the Child abides in You and literally is You, the Spiritual Self, the need for time and lessons is no more.
May Blessings of Love shower upon You and Bless You, Holy One. I rejoice with You in this precious opportunity. I am with You every seeming step on the road to our Home, and because of the One Who goes with Us there is Great Joy! Angels hover over and keep watch, for the time of Awakening is nearer than a breath. There is a sparkle in the eyes of the one who knows of the many miracles that will be bestowed in this happy dream. There is a playfulness and lightness everywhere, for Christ has come to behold the Eternal Innocence that is the Heavenly Inheritance of everyone who seemed to go their way separate and alone. The illusion of separation cannot continue to seem to last, for the Light has come. Let our Light shine, and be the Beacon to light the way that once seemed dark and alone. Now the Christ Child can be no longer hidden from awareness. And we give thanks that this is so!
In overflowing Love,
David