Pioneering Mystic Essays, 2024

Dealing with Parental Programming

By Margaret M. Pauls
May 20, 2024

  I have Compassion for who I was when I came here, what I learned, both willingly and unwillingly, and am in complete awe of who I have become so far, without ever suspecting all the personal strengths it took to get me to this point. For we are strong, make no mistake, and we arrive to parents who may not be as strong as we, and certainly not as aware. We are born to parents especially chosen for us to uncover weaknesses within ourselves and any accumulated flaws we have acquired along our long Path back to God.
  However, we are also subject to the subtleties of parental programming by the flawed authority figures we are taught to obey. We seek to be loved, which may not always be provided, for our parents can only teach us what they learned from their parents and from life. Add to that the idiosyncrasies of their individual personalities, and we have the basis for confusion in our own psyche.
  You are a joyful soul. You came in steeped in Truth and Responsibility without having any physical basis to prove your thoughts, but knowing inherently what was right and wrong. You were the bane of your teachers’ existence, making bald-faced statements of Truth they certainly didn’t know how to respond to, and never failing to call out injustice when it reared its ugly head.
  It always seemed to you at times that you acted and saw things through older eyes and were much bigger than you really were, even though Poise will be a little late in coming. You are different from the other children, and a die-hard tomboy, much to the disappointment of your mother, who envisioned a feminine daughter and berated you constantly for not living up to her expectations. You are very tall, strong and capable, and knew how to cook, clean house, and iron from age 8 years on without being taught. It was rather like “do or die.”
  Through the years, it never seemed like you did anything right, and were subject to physical, verbal and emotional abuse from both parents. This caused you to never see the real you, but to always see “fat, ugly and worthless” when you looked in the mirror, no matter the reality.
  Likewise, your search for love took far longer than it should have, and one of the most important things I can tell you is, “No one will love you the way you want them to; they will only love you the way they can.”
  Another important thing is to remember is that God created you in His Image and Likeness, and used His own Substance to do it. You learned that in Church when you were very small, and it didn’t mean anything to you—you just accepted it as a fact. But, if the Father, who loves you dearly, made you from His own Substance, how could He not be a part of you and always with you, no matter where you are? Nothing can separate us from the Love of God—we can only put up mental barriers against Him, but He never goes away. He’s right there when you’re ready to acknowledge Him again.
  Because of your programming, you will find yourself sobbing during prayer at age 50, when you finally asked if there was Love, and to be able to see it. And, oh, the flood of memories that will come forth that had been repressed while you labored under your imposed delusions.
  The Love of God prepares things to delight us if we allow Him to. Let His wonders enfold you, letting you bask in the richest Love you could ever imagine.
  As Edna Lister would tell you, “Darling, you are perfect just where you are!”

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Faith Like a Mustard Seed

By Margaret M. Pauls
July 11, 2024

  There is a difference between belief and faith; you can believe in God, but not have faith in His promises and abilities. This doesn’t mean you can’t believe in them, you just don’t think they apply to YOU. Your religious upbringing was haphazard at best, and left you with more questions than answers, and somewhere, somehow, you felt you had to be perfect enough to deserve a miracle of your very own.
  You never realized that giving was a part of spiritual growth; no, you were taught to stand with upturned face to receive manna from heaven—but you had to be good enough. You never had spiritual discussions with your parents, since they considered religion was for class, not home. You never considered that you had a soul and were created with Love. So, not knowing your worth or spiritual inheritance, you just made the best you could out of your earthly childhood.
  So you learned the major stories of a Christian faith, and listened to the adolescent altar boys read the scripture references to the sermons, but the sermons were boring, and didn’t enlighten you because they all were sort of a litany of what you learned in class. You were about 13 when you left that religion behind you and started seeking a better path to God.
  But lack of spiritual training leads to spiritual apathy, and even though you would go with friends to their religious services, nothing moved you enough to stay. Eventually, you reached a point where you even questioned your belief in the Master, and started delving into the study of arcane and mysterious lore—and God was no longer a part of your daily life.
  All that study led you to some exciting places, but you still yearned for more, something with more substance that made sense. And then you were introduced to the work of Dr. Edna Lister, and suddenly, you were home. You found her work to be exactly what you originally believed in, before all that religious indoctrination; you suddenly felt your worth and knew you were truly loved by God.
  One of the first things you learned is found in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, Chapter 11:1, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. He goes on to give examples of all the major players in the Bible having faith enough to do what God had asked them to do. You felt a rekindling of your own faith, and the fire has never gone out.
  The Master told His apostles on several occasions that they needed faith like a mustard seed in order to do the greater works. What kind of faith can a mustard seed have? And what are the greater works I can do for God? Dr. Lister answered those questions and more when she said in a sermon:
  The mustard seed has complete faith in its ability to expand and grow. In full surrender to that inner urge to expand, it grows and produces potentially thousands of other mustard trees. Faith is the complete ability to grow and unfold, to expand and enfold. You receive rewards of faith not from people, but in an increased ability to express your manifold gifts.–Edna Lister, The Parable of the Mustard Seed, January 16, 1933.
  As your faith grew, you began to see an abundance of prayed-for miracles and blessings come into fruition. You began to open your awareness of God all around you, within you and working through you. Every year brings you a greater awareness of who you are and what you’re becoming. God loves you so, and only asks that you have faith enough to bring your miracles into manifestation.
  As Dr. Lister says, The law of faith is, Ask, believing, then praise and act as if you have it.–January 9, 1941.
  And so we have.

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