Elyon Group 1/18/98

[Rick P. Giles]

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January 18, 1998
*       Elyon (Jonathan TR):  Now that the mind of Jonathan has
calmed down, I will begin.  Today I would address you on the
topic of praise because this has bearing on your discussions to-
day involving accomplishments, involving the feeling of guilt,
involving talents.  I will remind you that worship is self-
forgetting, that there is no element of self-interest in worship,
be it favors for oneself, be it recognition of your thankfulness
of the Father by the Father.  The word praise brings into view a
sense of yourself and another.  In the case of worshipful praise
it is the Father and your soul. 
        I am Elyon.  
        It is good for us to honor one so worthy of our adoration as
is the Father.  He, after all, is the reason that we are even
able to acknowledge His value to us.  In giving praise, make
effort to connect yourself with Him in the sense that ac-
knowledging His praiseworthiness can inversely acknowledge your
lack thereof.  It is the Father's will that you seek to be like
Him, and so your praise of Him ought to include your high hopes
for your own evolution, for your own attainment.  What you praise
in the Father is to be you in the future rather than a contra-
distinction of His being and your appearance of lowly estate.  
        When you are reflecting upon events that have transpired in
your life that do not amount to praiseworthy values, this is the
best time to, rather than go into an evaluative cycle that
diminishes your worth, that you instead bring to mind those at-
tributes of God that you aspire to, to immerse yourself in the
joy of your recognition of its worth and begin to accommodate
what you acknowledge into your own actions.  It is a positive
shift away from rather than the painful indulgence into the event
you found to be disruptive of your growth.  In the end it
contributes to your growth.  
        Urantia has been taught the philosophy of dog eat dog in its
confused evolution, that where you can dominate or succeed at the
expense of another, you have more power, more abilities, greater
freedom.  This philosophy is not one we teach.  Rather we value
collective support.  I bring this up because I desire to
emphasize that it is good that you praise each other, that the
brotherhood is as worthy of praise as is the Father for the good
that is attained in each soul.  Again I repeat that this praise
is best undertaken when you combine it with the desire to become
identified with those praiseworthy traits.  Mankind would benefit
from more encouragement from each other.  It would help to dispel
the intense competitiveness that seeks to gain at the expense of
another and would contribute to your mutual upliftment.  
        Now I would make one more point on this topic, and that is
the ability to praise oneself.  This is not easy for many, for it
appears often as an expression of pride.  I do not intend to
encourage you to be boastful, rather I encourage you to be alert,
to acknowledge your accomplishments that you not lose sight of
your attainment, for it motivates you for the future.  Where the
danger--to use a strong word--in praise of another for the Father
is that you will downplay your worth and value as a personality,
and that you best, in praise, identify with that being praised.  
        With oneself the opposite is true.  The individual tends to
avoid praise of oneself so that one may identify with who you
are.    Self-praise ought to include the sense of detachment rather
than identification.  This is the safeguard against pride and is
the objective comprehension and acknowledgement of your abilities
and accomplishments.  You can be your own mentor.  
        All of you in this room have sensed the transformation of
our being over the years of your lives.  Where you struggle today
to attain even near morontia realities, in personality accom-
plishment--where you see the increased effort required and even
perhaps tremble at the sense of inadequacy in your abilities to
reach these new levels--do look into your past and note the great
attainments you made when you were far less skilled than you are
today.  If you can accomplish those goals with less than you have
today, how much more are you able to accomplish with this before
you tomorrow?  If you do feel difficulty in giving yourself con-
gratulations, do please include in your expression the realiza-
tion of the Father's ever constant presence and interest in your
work and attainment.  You can at least praise Him for His
abilities in helping you.  This will help you utilize detachment
and avoid pride while still acknowledging that you have done
well.  
        Worship is the act of identifying the self with God.  Praise
is a mechanism for this process.  It ought not to alienate you
from the receiver of praise.  It ought not to lessen your value. 
It is a means for becoming God-identified,  for the Father never
decreed, "Praise me that I may be shown worthy."  He said, "Be
you perfect as I am perfect."
        I have finished my expression today and will take your
responses if you are desirous to engage me.  
        Evelyn:  You deserve some praise for succinctly stating very
encouraging messages on a regular basis.  We each have
opportunities to explore doing that ourselves.  
        In distinguishing praising yourself and not being prideful,
I understand it is to be detached.  I guess that makes sense.
*       Elyon:  Jonathan experienced some anxiety at this point in
my discourse.  Perhaps the subject was a little too close for
him.  I attempted to distinguish the difference between pride and
boasting and praise of oneself, and that it is good in praising
the Father to seek identification rather than alienation.  Yet,
with yourself, a certain degree of detachment is a safeguard
where self-praise through identification could lead to pride. 
Does this help to clarify?
        Evelyn:  I think so.  It means that you are looking at
something you have done as if someone else had done it.  It's
easier to say, "Look at this good job" while acknowledging that
there is plenty of room for further improvement, but progress is
being made.  
        We need encouragement.  If we get it from ourselves, it
means that much more. 
*       Elyon:  If your culture encouraged more praise of one
another instead of the one-upmanship that is often prevalent, you
would not need to find reasons to uplift yourself in self-
acknowledgement.  But it is true that sometimes you need to fill
your own gas tank.  Since the Father sees you as a Paradise
citizen even at this hour, you are more than welcome to fill your
tank, for it is His fuel that you are receiving.  In light of our
lessons on grace, the Father has this fuel right at the switch of
the nozzle, ready to gush forth.  He has provided you with a
universe of pumps, personalities who can deliver His gifts.  You
must remove the nozzle and place it in your filler tube and pull
the trigger.  When you have made this act, His grace flows until
you choose to release.  Like a tank that holds fuel, it can hold
only so much.  You must then run it dry, be about the Father's
business and accomplish the task that grace is empowering you to
do. 
        Evelyn:  We were discussing earlier the world of the midway-
ers, what their lives are like.  Can you shed any light on that
to make it more understandable to us?
*       Elyon:  The greatest engagement the midwayers undertake is
the improvement of relation-ships.  It matters little whether you
are housed in bones and flesh or energized by the frameworks of
morontia, whether you work with stone or wood or materials of
higher realities, the ultimate skill is relationship.  It is the
crux of the great commandment.  Since your midway brothers are
confined to this world until Light and Life, they are always
welcoming of any who pass through this station.  They are ever
challenged to improve their abilities to be of service and their
abilities to be accommodating hosts.  Not only do they receive
constant visitation from what you perceive as above, they are
receiving constant influx from those who are below them, that is
the transient populations of humankind.  Ever will relationship,
new and old, be their focus of attention. 
        Does this answer?
        Evelyn:  Yes.  That opens up a lot of possibilities.  Do
midwayers from other planets have an opportunity to visit?
*       Elyon:  At this time it is not permitted, though it has been
discussed in the councils of the Correcting Time planning that
some exchange be allowed for the benefit of all afflicted with
the rebellion.  But the midwayers have also been allowed greater
contact on their worlds as you are being allowed con-tact.  You
might say that, when so many are coming their way, who needs to
travel?  
        Tom:  Is it possible for us to be of service to them?  Is
there something we can do for them?  Can we be their arms and
legs? 
*       Elyon:  They have abilities far greater than yours, which is
worthy of your praise.  However, it would be best that I expres-
sed their needs in a broad sense, for each of you have unique
functions you may fulfill that would be helpful to the midway
class resident here on Urantia.  That is, to make all your
decisions not only in light of your Paradise ascent and the will
of the Father, but in light of the planetary ascent to Light and
Life.  Just as you will occasionally fail in the execution of the
will of the Father as you develop the soul abilities to live His
will, you will have times when you realize you haven't
contributed much to planetary progress.  But this they seek with
a fervent intent that is transcendent of the human desire for a
glorious world state. If you are struggling with what you singly
may do for the benefit of the world, you can at least bring to
the attention of another of each one's value in world growth. 
Merely educating another will have great effects, oftentimes more
powerfully than any particular act you may singly perform. 
        Since you and the midwayers are at this time separated by
sensory curtains, and contact is tenuous and, from your perspec-
tive, often filled with doubt and uncertainty, you can help them
by being the best human being for Urantia you can be.  Though
they would love to work more directly with you, I might in this
way express how you might function together.  That is that if you
consider midwayers to be a musician with a particular instrument,
you are a musician with another instrument.  You aren't able to
sit in their place and play the same instrument with them.  You
must play yours in concert.  Though it appears that you play
yours and they play theirs, the two perform the song of Urantia. 
Until more contact is available this will be your function in
service to your midway friends.                             Has this helped?
        Tom:  Yes, thank you.  
        Evelyn:  You said competitiveness can be detrimental.  I was
thinking how in the realm of religious affiliations and prefer-
ences competitiveness is really unfortunate.  Something we can do
is praise each other's religions and religious experiences to get
away from that competitive attitude.   
*       Elyon:  Your address of this perspective causes me to desire
to interject one more comment about praise of each other and
compare it to the caution that praise of self could lead to
pride.  Praise of another can be to idolize them.  Idolizing is
separating.  This is why it is valuable to identify with that
which you are praising so that you may be more challenged and
encouraged to attain these same abilities.  It is the
competitiveness that infuses the mind with the sense that someone
else is superior and you are not.  Since superior is better than
lesser, you would fight to attain it rather than work as a team,
that all of you may at one point or another at a different time
likewise be as capable.  
        I, who am of a status far beyond yours at this point, do ex-
press to you my praise, for I witness my youngest brothers and
sisters making diligent effort at growth.  You are applying
yourselves with the fervor of mansion world students.  This is a
remarkable trait that you are developing and worthy of note.  You
see, you can even praise those whose status is below yours.  
        I have finished.  If any of you are receiving from anyone of
us, we welcome the opportunity.