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This worker learns to evaluate ideas from a spiritual perspective.
Have you ever had a moment when you shared an idea with someone and they dismissed it out of hand? I think it happens to everyone (at least I hope it’s not just me). There is generally a sense of frustration or even anger when someone does it – especially with one of my ideas. The idea is a good one – just ask me!! How dare them not see things the way I do! Surely I have never dismissed an idea out of hand...I listen to everything people say to me, and I encourage them to continue to develop the idea... NOT! Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I too am a culprit of not listening to others, or thinking my ideas are better than theirs, or even thinking that their ideas are stupid.
As I continue to mature along my professional and spiritual path, I am beginning to ask as much of me as I ask of others – or at least asking the same thing. When I bring up a new idea, my hope is that it improves something and that others will want to add to or develop the idea. So, when others bring up ideas, I ask myself: am I trying to develop the idea with them, or am I trying to squelch the idea and dismiss it – possibly because it wasn’t mine?
As I prepared for a meeting today I was reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures , by Mary Baker Eddy. Eddy writes “A spiritual idea has not a single element of error." Sounds great, but how do I know that my ideas, or someone else’s, are spiritual ideas? Well I think there are many way to consider this question, but I think the answer may be more simple than we might think. Is the idea selfish? Does the idea hurt anyone? If the answer to either of these questions is yes – forget the idea – it’s a bad idea. But if the answer is no, pursue it, develop it, nurture it as if it is a seed – because it is a seed, a seed of thought that will blossom and bless all.
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