A widow with a house full of children once telephoned a counselor. She had no money or food for her children. It was lunchtime and her children had not eaten since the day before. She was desperate. The counselor who took the call knew well what it was like to find oneself in such a predicament. She had learned that the power of prosperous thinking could literally supply “manna from heaven” at a financially desperate period in her own life. With great compassion she explained the magic power of giving in some way, which would start the substance flowing back in appropriate form.
Of course, when she explained that the widow must give in order to receive, the widow’s first reaction was much the same that yours or mine might be the first time we were told we must give to receive. She lamented, “But that’s just it–I have nothing to give.” To which the counselor gently replied, “My dear, of course you have something to give. We always have something to give. Indeed, we always have more to give than we at first realize.” She then urged this frantic widow to look about her and to ask for divine guidance concerning what she could give. The widow was assured that this counselor would be praying with her in the faith that she would be divinely led as to how to give and how to receive thereafter. This counselor also told her that, after starting the flow of substance by giving, she was then to get ready to receive by preparing her table for that meal she so wished for her children; and by preparing her grocery list with which to shop, in the assurance that the money would manifest very soon for those groceries.
In faith the widow sat down and prayerfully asked what she had that she could give. Suddenly she remembered flowers growing in her yard, which she happily cut and gave to a sick neighbor who seemed overjoyed to receive them. Next she prepared her table with the best china, silver and linens in the house. This caused pleasure and excitement among her children, who then expectantly awaited a good meal. Just as she was completing her grocery list, someone who had been owing her money for a long time, dropped by and paid her $30 on their debt! Thirty dollars which she had long since given up ever getting back... If I could shout only one message to the whole world regarding life’s secrets, it would be this: That you cannot get something for nothing, but that you can have the best of everything when you give full measure for the good you wish to receive. Since I have been writing about prosperity, I have received a number of letters from people who do not yet understand this law and who are still trying to get something for nothing. One woman asked that $30,0000 be sent to her immediately to pay off old debts. She didn’t write once or twice, but three times before she was convinced she must use this basic law of prosperity and bring in her own supply.
Radiate and You Will Attract
Emerson might have been describing this law of giving and receiving or radiation and attraction when he wrote, “Great hearts send forth steadily the secret forces that incessantly draw great events.” And who are the “great hearts”? Those people who dare to think and radiate great thoughts and expectancies of success and prosperity instead of failure, trouble and limitation. There’s nothing great, unusual, or praiseworthy about failure, trouble and limitation. Anyone can experience those things by following the line of least resistance and by entertaining the usual failure thoughts that one constantly hears every day. How often one hears the complaint, “Everything happens to me. I just can’t win for losing. This is a tough world. The other fellow gets the breaks.” This beginning usually leads into a conversation filled with unpleasant experiences of the day, criticism of jobs, co-workers, families, the governments, world leaders, war, crime, disease and hard times, hard times, hard times. Each of us constantly uses the law of radiation and attraction whether we are aware of it or not. But if you wish to enjoy more prosperity and success in life, you have to consciously, boldly and deliberately take hold of your thoughts and feelings and redirect them toward prosperity and success. It is up to you to dare to choose and radiate outward through your thinking what you really wish to experience in life, rather than to get bogged down in unpleasant or failure experiences of the moment. These conditions can change as quickly as you can change your thinking about them.
A friend in the public relations business recently used the law of radiation and attraction with successful results. For some time he had desired a certain out-of-state account and had made every reasonable effort to obtain it. Finally, he decided that he would definitely entertain and mentally radiate the desire for that account strongly, deliberately and boldly; feeling that surely in due time he would receive that account or a bigger one. He quietly sat down and thought about that account as though he were already handling it. He went over that account in his mind and thought of all the ways he would attempt to serve that client’s best interests if he were handling their public relations. He thought about the account and the people involved for a long time and in great detail. He also declared over and over for a time: I am not discouraged. I am persistent. I go forward. I am determined to achieve success in God’s own wonderful way for me. When a sense of peace came over him, he dismissed the matter from his mind.
A few weeks later he attended a convention in which a number of his clients were involved. While swimming with several of them in a motel pool, he casually met the man whom he had been trying for months to meet who had charge of that out-of-state account. Right there in the pool they negotiated! When he joyously related his experience to me he declared, “It was doubtless that prosperity law of radiation and attraction that brought the happy results.”
I have observed in talking with hundreds of people who have gone from failure to success that it is what we really think deep within ourselves most of the time, rather than the “big front” we may put up to others, that unconsciously attracts like results to us. There is an age-old maxim that says, “We are where we are because we are what we are, and we are what we are because of our habitual thinking.”
Many people work hard to attract greater good in superficial ways without first habitually radiating its mental equivalent, and then they are sorely disappointed when their great efforts result in failure and disappointment. Once when I was talking with a lady who felt she would like to be married, I suggested that she invoke the law of radiation and attraction. After explaining that she must radiate before she could attract, I suggested that she prayerfully radiate these ideas over and over: Divine Love expressing through me now draws to me all that is needed to make me happy and my life complete.
A little later I began receiving reports from mutual friends that she was working hard on the attracting angle, but was radiating nothing more than telephone calls and obvious invitations to all the men of her acquaintance. Later she returned and reported that the suggested prayer method had not worked. Gently I reminded her that she had not radiated the “prayer method” suggested, but had radiated the “scare method,” which had not been suggested. The method had worked in reverse, because she had reversed the process.
A middle-aged widow more recently dared to try the radiation and attraction method for the same purpose. While floating in a swimming pool she silently affirmed over and over: Divine Love expressing through me now draws to me all that is needed to make me happy and my life complete. Presently she heard a man’s voice calling to her from the side of the pool, inquiring about the water which she assured him was wonderful. Soon he was in the water and a little later he was in her life as her husband.
Mental Preparation Comes First
What a thrill it is to realize that all things can be accomplished within the mind first; that your mind is your divine power for good! The reason all things can be accomplished mentally first is that the mind is the connecting link between the formed and unformed world.
It’s up to you in this wonderful age to claim your spiritual dominion of great good over everything, and to dare to subdue, change or reform your world as you wish! Of course, you have been given all of this power to produce good and only good. Man’s difficulties come when he uses this power in reverse. But what a sense of freedom it gives you to realize that whatever you center your attention upon steadily, constantly and deliberately in your thoughts,
