I wrote this piece for a newsletter a couple of weeks ago, with disastrous results:

"Cold season is coming." "Get your flu shot." "Does every child in my son's kindergarten class have a green nose?"

Race consciousness (and personal experience) tells me that I'd better get ready for the battle. Is it inevitable that I get a cold every year at this time?

No! Just because that's my past doesn't mean that it has to be my present.

There is one Presence, one Power in my life, and that is the power of God. Thank you God, for showing me a new present: one filled with health! I know that God is the source of all Good. God knows no disease, and I need not experience disease. Right now I claim health for myself and my family. I call on the omnipotent Presence to shine forth as radiant health. I release any and all attachment that I have to disease; I deny the power of race thought in my life. I experience only health!

Thank you, God! Amen.

Great prayer, huh? So guess what happened the following week? That's right. I got sick.

After I got over the humiliation of my "failed" prayer, I started to wonder about it. Because I know that all prayer is answered. Period. So what happened?

Notice how I cleverly started off the prayer with a bunch of "common complaints." "Cold season is coming." "Get your flu shot." "Does every child in my son's kindergarten class have a green nose?"

It looks like my subconscious grabbed onto these affirmations instead of the health affirmations. Moral of the story: be careful what you affirm, even in quotes.

Okay, so I have a bit of a problem with sarcasm. You know what I've learned the hard way? My subconscious does NOT understand sarcasm! (By the way, children also don't get sarcasm. Be very, very careful when you relate to children to never use sarcasm.)

So, in fact, my prayer did not fail. I got exactly what I asked for. Cold season came, I did not get my flu shot and my son's class is truly flowing with green noses.

How often does that happen in our daily lives? How often are we praying desperately for some good, while all along we're unconsciously affirming the opposite?

This is consciousness, folks: being aware, 100% of the time, about our thoughts, feelings, statements, reactions, words.

Become aware. Pay attention. Focus on the goal, not on the rocks in the path.

And, by the way, get a partner to help you pay attention. It makes all the difference in the world when you have someone helping you to keep the High Watch on your words.