Reflection
Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back into our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.
Marianne Williamson
Prayer
Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth
1 John 3:18.
Action
What fears have you learned? How can they be unlearned?
Suggested Reading
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalm 27:1
Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
John 14:27
A fearful Christian is a person who has not understood the message of Jesus.
Pope Francis
If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend.
Henri Nouwen
If you want to tap into what life has to offer, let love be your primary mode of being, not fear. Fear closes us down and makes us retreat. It locks doors and limits opportunities. Love is about opening to possibilities. Seeing the world with new eyes. It widens our heart and mind. Fear incarcerates, but love liberates.
John Mark Green
The way we can allow ourselves to do what we need to, no matter what others may say or do, is to choose love and defy fear.
Martha Beck
The moment we begin to fear the opinions of others and hesitate to tell the truth that is in us, and from motives of policy are silent when we should speak, the divine floods of light and life no longer flow into our souls.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose love over fear.
Oprah Winfrey
When you face a ‘performance’ that might provoke the ‘I’m scared’ response, choose love and approach your opportunity as a chance to dance with God. It’s more fun than Dancing with the Stars!
Wayne Dyer
Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness, of hatred, of jealousy, and, most easily of all, the gate of fear.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.