"You who live in a land where freedom is so highly prized, have not, then to dispense with its fruits. But you are challenged and do have the obligation to uphold and vindicate the distinction between the license that limits your possibilities for genuine progress and the moderation that ensures the enjoyment of true liberty."
Universal House of Justice, from a letter to the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in the United States of America, 29 December 1988
My guided meditation this morning asked me to think of a time when I felt worthy. This puzzled me as I have not really thought about this prospect and proceeded to wrack my brain to remember such a time. I kept jumping to memories that involved being acknowledged for something I had done, where people had complimented me on something or other. I realised that I was drawn to the instances in my life when something I said or did was considered worthy by someone else. This I knew in my heart was not feeling worthy at all. The question I then posed was what virtue do I need to recognise those moments when I have felt or feel worthy? Modesty was just what I needed to look deep within and draw out my own worth and recognise this for myself. I was going about the exercise all wrong and sadly the meditation prompt also had led me astray. Worth is something we all have to recognise for ourselves about ourselves. It does not come from an external source judging us from a standard that is designed to pit us one against the other. No, it comes from my heart realising that even when I am at my worst, feeling down in the dumps and head first in chocolate cake, that even at those horribly low times, I am enough. It's when I can sit in the knowledge of my own inherent nobility that then I may adopt the practices that the modesty card suggests. When I am not in a state of lack and feel grateful for all that I have, the people I have been blessed to associate with, that I treat my body with dignity and respect. I feel comfortable in my own skin and have no need to exaggerate my achievements. I have had glimpses of this in life, stages that feel so brief that I don't seem to remember that it was so. What helps me to remember is to read the Word of God and see the words on the page denoting me as noble, perfect as I am and created out of love. When I take the time to open my heart, resist the distracting calls of the naysayers in my head, these words evoke a feeling of worthiness within me. I have done nothing special, simply because I exist, I am worthy. Because I am worthy I choose to strive to utilise my talents and gifts to help others. Today I am going to sit in the warm embrace of this truth.