“If a person has nine bad qualities and one good one, cling to the one and forget the nine” we are challenged in the Baha’i Writings. How unfortunate for all that we are prone to do just the opposite. Psychiatrists and psychologists alike would agree that such irrational behavior is usually due to low self esteem or other insecurities. While wrapped in our own small world, we fail to recognize that most people are equally insecure in one way or another.
As one elderly gentleman once told me, “The only difference between city folks and country folks is they’re dumb about different things.” Isn’t that really the biggest difference between any of us? Also that we have different strengths and different weaknesses. What a wonderful world it will be when we learn to pool rather than pit these strengths to minimize our weaknesses and vulnerability. When we continue to magnify and capitalize on differences, weaknesses and those things which easily divide us, we play right into the hands of the small minorities that continue to maintain, manipulative control over the masses through the annals of time. Still we continue to allow our insecurities (and we all have them) to magnify often to the point of social, mental or spiritual paralysis.
I find such solace, motivation and determination in my daily morning prayers and memorizations that I often like to share them with others, most of whom may never otherwise hear them. For the past couple of mornings I’ve been working on “Heed not your weaknesses and frailty, fix your gaze upon the invincible power of the Lord, thy God, the Almighty. Arise in His name, put your trust wholly in Him and be assured of ultimate victory.”
Others I have put tunes to, to assist in their memorization as: “Do not look at your weakness; nay, rely upon the confirmation of the Holy Spirit. He maketh the weak strong, the lowly mighty, the child grown, the small great.” And then there are scores of prayers from the Holy Writings by the Central Figures of the faith, which can be found in no other religious dispensation. All inclusive prayers for tests, for assistance, children, for the departed, healing, praise of God, for unity, and every conceivable occasion, which contain unparalleled beauty, eloquence and potency, applicable to all religions or no particular religion.
“O ye that dwell on earth!” the Baha’i Writings state, “The fundamental purpose animating the Faith of God and His religion is to safeguard the interests and promote the unity of the human race and to foster the spirit of love and fellowship amongst men. Suffer it not to become the source of dissension and discord, of hate and enmity…” all qualities of man, for love is of God and God is love. It has never been more apparent that what the world needs now is love!
Therefore, we are admonished individually and collectively in the Baha’i Writings to “be a sign of love, a center of love, a sum of love, a world of love, a universe of love!” Ah me, asks Abdu’l-Baha. “Hast thou love? Then thy power is irresistible…”
