Plowing our own Fields
If we allow our attention and energy to be taken up in efforts to keep others right and remedy their faults, we are wasting precious time. We are like ploughmen each of whom has his team to manage and his plough to direct, and in order to keep his furrow straight he...
Showing our Aloofness
Increasingly, as time goes by, the characteristics of the Bahá’ís will be that which captures the attention of their fellow-citizens. They must show their aloofness from the hatreds and recriminations which are tearing at the heart of humanity, and demonstrate by deed...
Understanding the Tests in our Communities
Often these trials and tests which all Bahá’í communities inevitably pass through seem terrible, at the moment, but in retrospect we understand that they were due to the frailty of human nature, to misunderstandings, and to the growing pains which every Bahá’í...
Self Image
O Son of Spirit! Noble have I created thee, yet thou hast abased thyself. Rise then unto that for which thou wast created. (Bahá'u'lláh, Hidden Words, Arabic 22) Recently I was studying the long obligatory prayer with a Bahá’í friend and we noted that in the preface...
The Importance of Faith
When the light of faith is kindled in the lamp of the heart and soul, its spreading rays illumine every limb of the body. When this resplendent light shineth forth through the medium of the tongue, it is made manifest in the powers of speech and utterance. When its...
Cleansing our Hearts of Estrangement and Conflict
Root out the sources of dissension and raise up the foundations of harmony. Cling tenaciously to the hem of the love of God and cleanse your hearts of any trace of estrangement or conflict. Thus may the light of divine bestowal shine resplendent, and ye become the...
Witnessing the Tokens of Divine Assistance
The more they strive for harmony, the greater their progress; the more they exert effort to achieve unity, the more they will witness the tokens of divine assistance.… (From a Tablet of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá—translated from the Persian, from Give me Thy Grace to Serve Thy...
How to Love One Another
The purpose of the appearance of the holy Manifestations hath ever been the establishment of fellowship and love in the world of humanity. The friends should therefore lay down their lives in this arena that they may exhilarate the people of the world with the wine of...
Steadfast and Growing
As thou hast realized thy own shortcomings, rest thou assured that thou art firm in the Covenant and Testament, and in the love of the True One art steadfast and growing. ('Abdu'l-Bahá, Star of the West, Vol. 8, No. 17, p. 228) Because I’m in burn-out and have greatly...
Unity: One of the First Essentials
If we Bahá’ís cannot attain to cordial unity among ourselves, then we fail to realize the main purpose for which the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh and the Beloved Master lived and suffered. In order to achieve this cordial unity one of the first essentials insisted on by...
Choosing to Accept God’s Blessings
If the heart turns away from the blessings God offers how can it hope for happiness? If it does not put its hope and trust in God's Mercy, where can it find rest? Oh, trust in God! for His Bounty is everlasting, and in His Blessings, for they are superb. Oh! put your...
Setting Aside Every Personal Sense of Grievance
Regarding the matter of ... and the inharmony that seems to exist among certain of the friends ... when Bahá’ís permit the dark forces of the world to enter into their own relationships within the Faith they gravely jeopardize its progress;... All should be ready and...
Understanding our Reality
Do thou reckon thyself only a puny form when within thee the universe is folded? (Bahá'u'lláh, Seven Valleys, p. 34) There are so many places in the Bahá’í Writings that talk of the reality of our being, and yet I continue to abase myself by focusing on my weakness...
What to Do Instead of Gossip and Backbiting
If some people come to thee alone complaining against each other, don't listen to them, don't let them breathe the faults of others in thy presence. Tell them: “I have not come here to engage my time with these things. I am not a judge. I have come to summon the...