1 – Why Are We Here?
Q: Why Are We Here?
A: We're here to play the Discovery Game!
In the first lesson, we meet Sunny as she gets ready to play the Discovery Game on planet Earth. It's a great game where God gives you special talents to discover and you have to find them as you play. Sunny slips through a portal into the blindfold (her Earth body) created just for her to play in, and she arrives at the perfect place and time to begin her game.
She knows that her friends will be joining her soon, but they stay behind to send her on her way. The portal between her and her friends begins to close and Sunny starts to forget who she is and why she is on Earth. Before her portal closes, her friends remind her to be sure to activate her Heart Light - the place in her heart where God lives.
Sunny activates her Heart Light and can feel God living through her. She knows that God is her Best Friend Forever and will guide her to all the wonderful adventures ahead.
Things to Do
Things to Think About
- What would it be like to travel in space with just your mind? Like you do when you are dreaming at night? What if your imagination could take you anywhere you wanted to go? Where would you go? What would you do? Who would you visit?
- The Earth is a beautiful place. What do you love about being on Earth? Think of things you love doing, people you love being with, things that make you laugh, ways you like to play, food you like to eat, music you love to hear.
- There are lots of reasons people come to play the Discovery Game. Some people discover that they are here to be dancers, or athletes, or inventors, or teachers, or scientists, or creators of beautiful things, or leaders, or earth helpers. There are so many things people can be! What do you like to be?
- What are some of the things you have discovered about yourself as you play here on Earth? What special things make you different from the other people you know?
Things to Do
Make a Discovery Book
You are growing every day – both outside and inside. And you are discovering wonderful things about yourself and your life on Earth.
A Discovery Book is a perfect place to write about and draw pictures of all the new things you discover!
There are lots of ways to make a Discovery Book and lots of ways to use it. Go to the For Kids page for more ideas.
Ideas for Your Discovery Book
- You can always start each page with something like, "I discovered something wonderful!"
Here are some more ideas you can write about
- I am happy to be on Earth! Here are some great things I’ve discovered so far ...
- This is me playing in space
- These are some things I love about being on Earth
- These are some things I might want to be when I grow up
- These are some things I discovered about myself
From Ernest Holmes
Remembering who we really are – The Parable of the Angel (excerpts):
A parable is told of an angel who came to visit the earth. He found himself in the usual stream of human activities and he listened to the conversations of people. For the first time he heard negative comments. Someone who was supposed to be an authority said that there might be a war and human life would be destroyed ... He began to wonder if these things might not be true, and even as he entertained the thoughts of negation to which he was listening, the brightness of his angelic presence faded into dark shadows. His form seemed to shrivel, and looking at himself he saw that he was dressed as a human being, walking the earth in fear, doubt, and uncertainty ... And yet, even in the midst of all this, something within him remembered that he was once an angel of God, living in a heaven of Beauty and a place of Peace and Joy, living in a Garden of Eden which God had provided for him. And, remembering, a determination arose within him to somehow or other find his way back to this lost paradise. This determination grew into a great hope, and as hope was renewed, a Light seemed to shine in the distance; and he seemed to have the courage to travel toward the Light. And gradually a miracle took place. As he traveled toward the Light, he found that shadows were being cast behind him, until finally he so completely entered into the Light that no shadows were cast at all, and he realized that he had been asleep, that he had had a bad dream from which he was awakening.
Living the Science of Mind, p.183
The “Discovery Game”
… each can think of himself as playing a part in the game of life, and a good one.
Living the Science of Mind, p. 353
… man never created himself. He merely awakes to self-discovery.
Living the Science of Mind, p. 112
...everything that we appear to be outwardly, is always the result of some hidden fire burning at the center of our being, some Divine Reality which we did not create but which we may discover.
Living the Science of Mind, p. 171
God is both the inventor of a game and those who play it, the author and the actor, the song and the singer.
Creative Ideas
Unique talents and gifts
God Himself has placed a unique stamp on everyone. We should not study to be alike, but rather to develop what we really are.
Living the Science of Mind, p. 172
There is a Divine Person back of our personality-a unique manifestation of the Living Spirit. It is never alike in any two people. This is proved by the fact that no two persons' thumb prints are alike, no two blades of grass are alike, no two anythings are identical. And yet everything is rooted in One Life, One Presence, and One Power.
Living the Science of Mind, pp. 171-172
God speaks to the heart
God speaks to the heart through a language of feeling, a feeling which is affirmative.
Living the Science of Mind, p. 164
God does speak to the heart more than to the intellect …
Living the Science of Mind, p. 165
The “Best Friend Forever” – The Inner Friend (excerpts):
You have a Friend within you who is closer than your shadow. This Friend anticipates your every desire, knows your every need, and governs your every act. This Friend is the God within your own soul, the animating Presence projecting your personality, which is a unique individualization of the Living Spirit. ... The Friend within you is continuously looking after your well-being. He always wishes you to be happy, to be well, to be radiant. Being the very fountain of your life, this Friend is a luminous Presence evermore emerging from pure Spirit, evermore expanding your consciousness. He is the High Counselor, the Eternal Guide. He is your intellect, the essence of its understanding, the nicety of its calculation, the appreciation of its temperament. There can be no greater unity than exists between you and this inner Friend.
Living the Science of Mind, pp. 124-125
… we are guided and directed into right action; we should know that there is an Intelligence which goes before us and makes perfect, plain and immediate our way. (Living the Science of Mind, p. 8)
There is a guardian angel that accompanies everyone through life. It is the angel of God’s presence in that person. It is his spiritual nature.
Words That Heal Today, p. 17
“Heart Clouds”
No plainer statement of the Law of Cause and Effect could be given than this. We may wire the building for electricity, and have light. But if the wire is short-circuited something will go wrong and we shall again be entangled with darkness. The darkness was never a thing of itself; it was merely a confused state. The source of our supply was not really cut off; it stopped at our place of confusion and no longer functioned for us. This is a perfect statement of the mental Law of Cause and Effect and it again warns us that we must be aware of the use we are making of the Law; we must keep our thought straight.
Living the Science of Mind, p. 338