Every day we help mold and develop people by what we offer them. If we offer people patience, love and forgiveness, they have a greater chance of growing into patient, loving and forgiving beings. And we will live in gratitude if these people touch our lives or the lives of our children. These people will in turn be grateful to us and our children, for they will remember that it was our patience, love and forgiveness that allowed them to become who they are today.
My friend, offer what you want to experience. Offer patience, love and forgiveness, and you will manifest them in one way or another in your life. Offer judgment and ridicule, and sooner or later, this is what you will manifest into your life.
– James Blanchard Cisneros, Author of You Have Chosen to Remember: A
Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 10
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So my friend, I ask your heart, for only your heart can answer these questions truly: Who is really homeless here? Is it the person who is asking for assistance, or is it the person who will not assist? Is it the person on his knees reaching out for you or is it the person who, as he walks by, turns his or her head the other way in order to not be bothered? Is it the person who has lost everything, or is it the person who will not search his or her soul? My friend, your heart knows the answers to these questions because your heart holds on to the truth of who you are. The ego would have you look away from your heart, but where has this thought system ever truly gotten you? Has it offered the world peace? Has it even offered you peace?
The time is coming when you will choose to look within. The time is coming when you will look into your brother or sister’s eyes and see yourself reflected in them. For when you truly look at a brother or sister, when you look closely into his or her eyes, do you not see yourself reflected in them? Does this mean nothing to you? My friend, if there is one thing I can promise you it is this: The time is coming when you will turn to your brother or sister, take his or her hand and smile.
– James Blanchard Cisneros, Author of You Have Chosen to Remember: A
Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 98
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Martin Luther King Jr. once said:
Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. (9)
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. 99
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I once read that service is love put into action. Yet if we ourselves are love, and love put into action is service, then any time we’re in action we’re in service. Service, as defined by the ego, has boundaries and parameters that the ego’s world decided fit or didn’t fit its definition of service. The ego says we’re being of service if we do A and B, but not if we do C and D. It tells us that those who are doing A and B have bigger hearts and are better people than those who do C and D. The ego tries to have us believe all this to further separate us from our brothers and sisters.
– James Blanchard Cisneros, Author of You Have Chosen to Remember: A
Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 99
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In this OBE, I was given an example where I was led through an individual interaction where I offered love and peace. The example felt like it lasted just a moment in time and yet it seemed to forever flow through eternity. I was shown how one individual interaction touched not only the person with whom I interacted but flowed to those with whom they interacted and so on. I wondered how many people my one interaction affected, and in that one moment I was brought into a stadium full of people. I was in such awe of the number of people that single interaction in one way or another touched, that I had to hold back the tears. An angel smiled at me and said, “No, not yet.” He lifted me above the stadium and there I saw what seemed to be a thousand more stadiums filled with those my one interaction had in one way or another touched. I could no longer hold back the tears. Before this thought form, I believed that the only way I could make a difference in the world was by directly leading or serving a great number of people. But it was there that I learned about the magnificence of the moment, the importance of even the shortest conversation, the beauty of a kind glance, the value of a caring smile, the substance of a gentle touch, the magnitude of an honest compliment and the magnificence of a warm hug.
– James Blanchard Cisneros, Author of You Have Chosen to Remember: A
Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 101-102
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A friend of ours was walking down a deserted Mexican beach at sunset. As he walked along, he began to see another man in the distance. As he grew nearer, he noticed that the local native kept leaning down, picking something up and throwing it out into the water. Time and again, he kept hurling things out into the ocean.
As our friend approached even closer, he noticed that the man was picking up starfish that had been washed up on the beach and, one at a time, he was throwing them back into the water.
Our friend was puzzled. He approached the man and said “Good evening, friend. I was wondering what you are doing.”
“I’m throwing these starfish back into the ocean. You see, it’s low tide right now and all of these starfish have been washed up onto the shore. If I don’t throw them back into the sea, they’ll die up here from lack of oxygen.”
“I understand,” my friend replied, “but there must be thousands of starfish on this beach. You can’t possibly get to all of them. There are simply too many. And don’t you realize this is probably happening on hundreds of beaches all up and down this coast. Can’t you see that you can’t possibly make a difference?”
The local native smiled, bent down and picked up yet another starfish, and as he threw it back into the sea, he replied, “Made a difference to that one!” (11)
– Jack Canfield, Chicken Soup for the Soul
Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. 104
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Would God not be thankful for any offering, regardless of how small it is? Would God not be thankful and proud of one of His children offering a gift, or even a kind word to another of His children? Would He not acknowledge the purity of our thoughts, the kindness of our actions? So what does it matter if another person outwardly thinks of our gift as worthy, or does not even acknowledge it? For the truth is, and this I believe with all my heart, that in the receiver’s mind there is a part of him or her that joins with God in thanking us. There is a part in our brother or sister that joins with God in saluting our actions. There is a part in every single person, regardless of how hard they’ve tried to hide or forget it, where God resides, and this part blesses every gift we offer.
Every gift we offer a brother or sister is given and received by God. Thus, what we give away, we keep. And in the end, only what we give away do we ever truly keep. No gift is ever lost; no gift is ever left thankless. And know that I thank you, because every gift you offer to your brother or sister, you offer to me.
– James Blanchard Cisneros, Author of You Have Chosen to Remember: A
Journey from Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 119-120
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I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now and not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.
– William Penn
Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. 237
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If in my high moments, I have done some good, offered some service, shed some light, healed some wounds, rekindled some hope, or stirred someone from apathy and indifference, or in any way along the way helped somebody, then this campaign has not been in vain… If in my low moments, in word, deed or attitude, through some error of temper, taste or tone, I have caused anyone discomfort, created pain or revived someone’s fears, that was not my truest self… I am not a perfect servant. I am a public servant doing my best against the odds. As I develop and serve, be patient. God is not finished with me yet. (44)
– Jesse Jackson, July 17, 1984 Democratic National Convention
Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. xii
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Footnotes / Acknowledgments
Every effort has been made to provide accurate source attribution. Should any attribution be found to be incorrect, the author welcomes written documentation supporting correction for subsequent printings. For material not in the public domain, selection was made according to generally accepted fair-use standards and practices.
(9). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “The Drum Major Instinct,” Sermon delivered at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia, February 4, 1968. Copyright The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr.
(11). Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Copyright 1993 (Health Communications).
(44). Jesse Jackson, Speech at Democratic National Convention, San Francisco, California, July 17, 1984.
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