Unity Center of Norwalk

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“What Is Praise?” Rev. Shawn Moninger @ Unity Center of Norwalk CT (8/27/23)

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Living From the Super-consciousness

“Reeducating Our Minds”

Hey Unity,

“Reeducating Our Minds”

I co-taught myself a lot of stuff in my younger youth.  I say “co-taught” because while I had many senior teachers in my life, I still interpreted many things they passed along, so I am obligated to reeducate myself now if I am still applying teachings that don’t work.  

One of the things I have to reeducate myself on is how I think about my teachers (parents, school teachers, lovers, friends, adult figures, ministers, etc...) I have had to find out how to let them off the hook in my thinking so that I’m not distracting myself with resentment and unforgiveness.  

I have had to reeducate myself repeatedly about God and Love, and all of this spirituality stuff.  

Most of all, I have had to reeducate myself about myself.  I have had to reeducate my mind about almost everything I have thought about myself at one time or another.  The things I taught myself were too small.  I gave myself too small of a God and therefore too small of a self and too small of a life.  It’s okay now that I did that.  It’s okay now because I have reeducated myself.  I listened to the teachers that told me I was big and that my God needed to be even bigger.  

A small example about reeducating minds comes from a time when I was five years old.  My grandmother made brussels sprouts.  I looked at them and told her I didn’t like brussels sprouts.  She asked if I had ever eaten them.  I said, “No, but I still don’t like them.”  She asked if I would try just one?  If I didn’t like it, I didn’t have to eat any more.  I trusted my grandmother so I tried one.  It was delicious.  Brussels sprouts are one of my favorite vegetables.  It was not lost on me, even at five that I was convinced I didn’t like them even though I had never tried them.  It also was not lost on me that I had missed out on other delicious things before that I was sure I didn’t like but had never tried.  That’s why I don’t like beans today.  Believe me, I’ve tried all kinds of beans and they are awful!  

I’ve tried different modes of spirituality and found things I liked and things that didn’t work for me.  I’ve given people who I thought I wouldn’t like a chance.  Some have become good friends.  Others don’t resonate either on my part or on theirs.  

The point is, my mind needs to be reeducated all the time so that I don’t let foolish and uneducated prejudices limit me and keep me from my good.  What will you try today that you haven’t tried before?

All the Best For Today,
Rev. Shawn