Review (197)

The gratitude that brings you back to yourself: the gift and the reward are one

This review of lesson 197 offers you a beautiful key: you gain only your own gratitude. The affirmation "I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me" creates the space where this gratitude can grow within you. The review is especially important at this advanced stage, because repetitions are no longer mental exercises but lived experiences that carve the riverbed of gratitude in your heart.

Lesson 197 poses a question that is both a challenge and an invitation: who else but yourself should give thanks for your own salvation? And how do you find the Self to whom your gratitude is due, if not through salvation itself? These questions always bring you back to yourself, not to the limited ego you believe you are, but to the Self you share with God. Gratitude becomes the path that leads you to both the giver and the receiver, revealing they are one.

The review is crucial for this lesson because gratitude is the quality most easily forgotten in the whirlwind of concerns. You spend your time asking and seeking, and forget to thank for what you already have. But lesson 197 tells you that gratitude is not mere politeness. It is the key that preserves and multiplies the gifts you have received. Without gratitude, gifts fade. With gratitude, they illuminate everything around you. The review helps you cultivate this inner attitude.

To live this gratitude today, begin your day by thanking for something simple: the breath flowing in and out of your lungs, the light of day, the beating of your heart. Then, throughout the day, actively seek reasons to be grateful, even the smallest: a kind word, a ray of sunshine. And above all, give thanks for each lesson, each difficulty overcome. The gratitude you express brings you back to that Self who is the source and destination of all love.

It is only your gratitude that you gain, and in gaining your gratitude, you gain everything else. Remember this.