June 30

Here is a five-day mental diet. It’s good for healthy-mindedness. It will help give you a great day every day.

FIRST DAY: Think no ill about anybody—only good about everybody.

SECOND DAY: Put the best possible construction, the most favorable interpretation, on the behavior of everybody you encounter or have dealings with.

THIRD DAY: Send out kindly thoughts toward every person you.

FOURTH DAY: Think hopefully about everything. Immediately cancel out any discouraging thought that comes to mind.

FIFTH DAY: Think of God’s presence all day long. 

June 29

Gloom drives prosperity away. Prosperity shies away from dark and negative thoughts, veering off from minds filled with pessimism and doubts. So think bright thoughts and attract prosperity. Note that the word scarcity is built upon the word scare. Be careful not to think scarcity and so scare prosperity away. Think plenty and stimulate abundance.

June 28

The only way you can rid yourself of a thought or thought pattern is by displacement—by putting another thought in, by substitution or thought-switching. lf you entertain in mind a defeat thought, a discouragement thought, a frustration thought, or any negative thought, practice thought substitution. Deliberately open the mind and substitute the contrary thought pattern, one positive in nature. Such thought conditioning can change your life.

June 27

Brother Lawrence, a saintly character of the Middle Ages, was a humble man, a cook and a great spiritual discoverer. His secret of the good life was the practice of the presence of God. He believed that always, at any hour of the day or night, in whatever circumstances or condition, the Lord is actually present.

June 26

When you have done your best and something frustrating happens, instead of being discouraged, examine the interference. It may mean improvement. Thorvaldsen, the famous Danish sculptor, looked with satisfaction on a finished figure of Christ he had made out of clay, with face looking toward heaven and arms extended upward. It was the imperious figure of a conqueror. 

That night, sea mist seeped into the studio, the clay relaxed, the head and arms dropped. Thorvaldsen was bitterly disappointed. But, as he studied the figure, something about it moved-him deeply.

Now Christ looked down with love and compassion. This was a greater conception. That statue, Come Unto Me, became immortal.

June 25

God must surely be interested in our having good, strong, sound bodies—for does not the Bible tell us the body is the temple of the soul?

June 24

Talking with Herbert Hoover in his later years, I asked him how he had been able to endure all the hostile criticism and hate that was heaped upon him during his last months in the White House. He said, “I’m a Quaker, you know . . .”  and reminded me that Quakers are taught from childhood to practice and develop inner calm. “When you have peace at the center, the trying experiences cannot overwhelm you.”

June 23

You have vast undamaged areas within yourself! No matter what life has done, no matter what you have done; the renewal power is there within you. If you bring spiritual power to bear upon those undamaged areas, you can rebuild life, no matter what has happened to it.

June 22

During the Civil War, a man once stayed overnight at the White House in Washington. In the middle of the night he awakened suddenly and thought he heard Lincoln’s voice, as though in pain, somewhere nearby. He jumped up, and went out into the dimly lit hall and, walking slowly in the direction of the voice, came to a door left ajar. Peering in, he beheld the lanky form of Lincoln prostrate on the floor in prayer, arms outstretched. Lincoln was humbly beseeching God to strengthen him against his sense of inadequacy. Lincoln knew he needed the great gift of God—“My peace I give unto you” so he sought and prayed for it with all his mind and heart.