5 Steps to Overcoming Setbacks
We note that, as learning accelerates, the friends grow more capable of overcoming setbacks, whether small or large—diagnosing their root causes, exploring the underlying principles, bringing to bear relevant experience, identifying remedial steps, and assessing...
Every Good Thing Hath Been Created For You
Let not the happenings of the world sadden you. I swear by God! The sea of joy yearneth to attain your presence, for every good thing hath been created for you, and will, according to the needs of the times, be revealed unto you. (Baha'u'llah, quoted in Shoghi...
The Path to Real Happiness
They have not properly understood that man's supreme honor and real happiness lie in self-respect, in high resolves and noble purposes, in integrity and moral quality, in immaculacy of mind. They have, rather, imagined that their greatness consists in the...
Resources for the Bicentenary of the Birth of the Bab
Excerpts from Messages of the Universal House of Justice Concerning the Bicentenary Celebrations From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies, 18 May 2016: … these Holy Days should be viewed as special...
Praying for Those Who’ve Hurt Us
O God, my God! Lowly, suppliant and fallen upon my face, I beseech Thee with all the ardor of my invocation to pardon whosoever hath hurt me, forgive him that hath conspired against me and offended me, and wash away the misdeeds of them that have wrought injustice...
The Beauty of Diversity
Thus should it be among the children of men! The diversity in the human family should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord. If you meet those of different race and colour from...
It’s OK to Feel Anxiety and Grief
To rise above the disappointments, obstacles, and pain which we experience in serving the Cause is difficult enough, but to be called on, in doing so, to be happy and confident is perhaps the keenest spiritual test any of us can meet. The lives of the Founders of our...
Spiritual Gravity
Just as the earth attracts everything to the centre of gravity, and every object thrown upward into space will come down, so also material ideas and worldly thoughts attract man to the centre of self. Anger, passion, ignorance, prejudice, greed, envy, covetousness,...
Contact with Godly People
O My Son! The company of the ungodly increaseth sorrow, whilst fellowship with the righteous cleanseth the rust from off the heart. (Bahá'u'lláh, Hidden Words, Persian 56) O Son Of Dust! Beware! Walk not with the ungodly and seek not fellowship with him, for such...
Why We Let Go of Our Tales and Stories
It is high time for you to throw away these tales, these barren stories. God is not pleased with them, humanity is not pleased with them, Your time is too costly to be expended on these trifling events. You are made in the image and likeness of God. Your birthright is...
Giving Thanks from the Heart
But real thankfulness is a cordial giving of thanks from the heart. When man in response to the favors of God manifests susceptibilities of conscience, the heart is happy, the spirit is exhilarated. These spiritual susceptibilities are ideal thanksgiving. ...
Moving with the Rhythm of Life
We ought not to resist the shocks and upheavals of life, nor run counter to obstacles, we ought never to be impatient, we ought to be as incapable of impatience as we would revolt, this not being so much long‑suffering as a quiet awareness of the forces that operate...
How to Transform from a Gnat into an Eagle
Be constantly attached to and seek always the confirmations of Bahá'u'lláh for these turn the drop into a sea and convert the gnat into an eagle. ('Abdu'l-Baha, Selections from the Writings of Abdu'l-Baha, p. 103) I wasn’t sure how much I could say about this quote,...
Molding the World and Being Affected By It
We cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life molds the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it . . . Through...