As your flame grows brighter and clearer you mature from child into adult. Growth takes time, experience and patience. The mature individual with a clear, bright flame demonstrates thanksgiving, gratitude, and praise. These three behaviors form the foundation of the adult life on the physical and spiritual planes. These are a result of maturity, yet practicing these also assists one in growth and clearing the flame. Balance between the three is needed as they are equal components of your foundation.
Give thanks for this day and the life you have been given. Give thanks for the love and guidance you are given every moment of everyday. If giving thanks is new to you, then begin by dedicating one minute, just one minute each day to focus on giving thanks. At first it may be difficult to come up with a minute full of things to give thanks for. Some things on your list may be general like the gift of health, family, or they may be very specific. Some things may seem minor or even insignificant to others, like the size of your nose, but these are what you recognize as a gift to be thankful for at the moment. As you practice thanksgiving your list will change. You will begin to be aware during your day of things to add to your list. Even better, give thanks for them at the moment you become aware of them. Let your awareness of your life change your list.
Now some may say I give thanks all day, is this not gratitude? Giving thanks is not the same as having gratitude. Gratitude is a feeling. Have you ever told someone thanks for a gift that gave you no joy or positive emotion? You may know that every day is a gift and give thanks for it, but what is the emotion behind the thanks? Is there a feeling, or is there emptiness behind your words? I hear your words and emotions as you talk to me. Your emotions are just as important as your words. Remember that your flame changes color with your emotions. Gratitude gives your flame a rosy glow. Feel the joy, the awe- whatever the emotion as you give thanks. Don’t try to force the feeling, try to experience how wonderful it makes you feel to know you have been given the perfect gift.
The third characteristic is praise. As a parent you give praise to children to reinforce good behavior. It is a way of acknowledging the good that was done. Does the child praise the parent? Does the parent need the praise of the child? Can the child understand the parent’s thoughts or actions other than through its own limited perceptions? Giving praise does form a bond between us and increases the brightness of your flame. Giving praise also opens your thoughts and awareness to something greater than yourself. It expands your awareness of the world from what immediately surrounds and concerns you. It allows you to recognize that there is a greater force in the universe than your actions or will. Giving praise switches you from egocentric to God-centric. You, the maturing child, can then focus on learning that which is good and right while bonded with your loving Father. As you mature you understand that you can never fully understand the greatness of your Father, the Creator of all things, so give praise recognizing that your Father is greater, even more awesome than you can comprehend.
By maturing into the person who gives thanks, has gratitude and gives praise you open your mind, heart and soul to being the person to fill your niche in the grand plan for the world and the universe.