Have you been taught not to trust your feelings? Can you trust this teaching? What can you trust? Your thoughts? Have they ever been wrong? You live in an age in which rational thought is placed above everything else. Does this mean your feelings should be dismissed as irrelevant? Yet they are real for you. If feelings cannot be taken as a guide, can reasons? Have you ever known anyone to generate reasons in support of their feelings? Have you ever done so yourself? Feeling and thinking can both be sanctified as a part of your relationship with me.

Do you have many friends? Do you see them as a form of wealth that is greater than money? You have heard references to a friend of a friend that is often used in a comical sense, but friends of friends can become friends. Do you have a better source of friends than that? Do you think of friendship in a spiritual sense? I do. My disciples had been with me for years but it wasn’t until the end that I told them that I called them no longer servants but friends, and that greater love had no man than that he lay down his life for his friends.

Do you think that I am unchanging? That is a point of Christian doctrine. Has your perception of me changed? I hope so. The alternative is to think that your first impression of me was correct and complete. That is a strong assumption. Have you already seen your understanding of me change as you grow and learn? It is normal for your understanding of me to change as you change, based on the scriptures, your life experiences and your encounters with others. Be teachable and prepared to let go of old concepts when they no longer serve you.

Have you ever done the right thing for the wrong reason? Or done the right thing in the wrong way? For instance, you can help the poor in a way that is self-righteous and judgmental toward them and toward those who are not as diligent in charity as you are. Is this moral? If it is, it is ugly morality, and you have seen how distasteful this can be. I told my followers not to let one hand know what the other was doing when they made donations. Have you also seen people do the right thing in a way that was humble and gracious and attractive? You could think of this as beautiful morality.