Praise and Bless

Another part of the Law of Attraction is to praise and bless.  I have pondered a lot upon this.  Rhonda Byrne says, "To praise and bless the things around you are worth their weight in gold...when you praise and bless you are on the highest frequency of love.  When you praise you are giving love."  (The Secret pg. 151)

"..do that which is good, and thou shalt have the praise of the same."  Romans 13:3
In today's high stress lifestyle, the economy being what it is, and evil & dishonesty mounting, it's more like everyone is going around cursing and criticizing.  It's a lot different driving on the roads these days, or shopping in the store, and various other things.  Common courtesy seems to be slipping away.  We could use some "praising and blessing" in our world. 

LOA says that praising and blessing dissolves all negativity.

Jesus said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use and persecute you...for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and the good...for if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?"  (Matt 5:44-48)

To bless is invoking divine favor and conferring well-being or prosperity.  To praise is the act of expressing approval or admiration, or the state of being approved or admired.

The people in England often end their letters, or say good-bye, by saying "God bless you."  For some reason that seemed awkward to me to use that phrase, but why is that?  It really is the highest form of love or praise you could give.  Who doesn't want God to bless them?  It's like a form of prayer.  I think the closest most American's come (just from my limited perspective, of course) is to say, "bless you" when someone sneezes!

Jaroldeen Edwards (in her book "Celebrate!") said "THINK with praise!"  Now think about that!  Even things that might once be irritable to us could be turned around with a little praise. To think with praise would manifest in our words and deeds.  To praise and bless would bring us closer to each other and closer to God.

I had a chance to put it to practice last Thursday.  I was driving to Eugene.  Driving is not the most fun thing to do any more.  You're bound to get someone "in your space" when you are not really doing anything wrong.  However, my attitude on the road isn't the best either.  I get annoyed when someone is clogging up the left lane going 65 MPH or less.  It's one thing if they are passing, but sometimes they just stay there for a long long time.  Often times there are drivers in the right lane next to them going the same speed.  There's no way to get around them.  Sometimes it's a truck driver.  Granted, they are only supposed to be doing 55 MPH.  But what really bugs me is when they know you are there and they pull out in front of you anyway because they want to pass.  I was coming up on 4 trucks.  Two of them had time to pull out to pass the first truck, even though it would have taken me about 30 seconds or so to go past them.  Then the third truck put on his blinker and started pulling into the left lane even though I was right there and he didn't have space to pull in.  I had 2 choices:  speed up and risk him coming over on me, or brake and let him have his way.  Grrrr.  I wasn't too happy with the guy.  But then I started thinking about the law of attraction and the power of positive thinking and wondered how I could change my annoyance for these kinds of drivers so that I didn't get left with the negative emotions that lead to stress in my neck and back.  It took me a good 10 minutes or so, and a prayer for help, and I was then able to think about how these truckers are on the road for long hours away from their families, and that even though it's their job and they get paid, it helps to get merchandise to the stores for my convenience and an abundant selection of things from all over.  I felt the negative emotions slip away, and felt peace again.  It may have only been in my thoughts, but I had given praise to someone else, and I was also feeling gratitude.  That put me on the frequency of love.

Another thing I've tried while on the road, when someone is tailgating and then passes you speeding, instead of criticizing, it's a happier more positive thing to think something like, "maybe they have a family emergency." =)
We can come up with many affirmative things to say instead of "jerk!" or "idiot"...two of my own bad habits.

Hopefully, though, more of our opportunities will come to us to verbalize out loud to someone.  Even if only to smile or say thank-you.  That really is a form of praising.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said "As we lift others, we rise a little higher ourselves.  True words of encouragement require only a loving and caring heart but may have an eternal impact on the life of those around you.  Small acts of service is all that is required to lift and bless another."  (Ensign 11/08)

Are there times when we could have praised someone but withheld?  I'm sure that happens.  It's not easy to praise and bless everyone.  Still, we could try.  A good friend of mine was telling me a while back about a difficult neighbor that she had, and how he'd complain about every little thing every chance he'd get.  As she was telling us about him, she would say that in order for her to deal with the situation, whenever she thought about him, or talked about him, she would say, "Bless his heart."  I couldn't help but smile, and have thought alot about that.  Even if that's all we can do in a difficult situation, what a lightening of heart and mind that would make.

Think of the times that someone has paid you a compliment and that made all the difference.  You never forget it.  Or a time when someone has thoughtlessly criticized.  It's hard to forget the sting.  Oh what a difference our words make.  If only all our words could bless and praise others.

A couple years ago, while reading James in the bible I came across a scripture that had such a tremendous impact on me I memorized it:

But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.  James 3:17

Of course he is talking about our words.  I did an extensive study on this verse and will, in the future, make a blog post for it.  I think it's so important.  We can at least "press towards the mark" of obtaining that perfection in our speech.  Praising and blessing will put us on the right track for that.

For that is the very thing which God does.

"His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praise."  Habakkuk 2:3

And he asks us to seek after those things.

"...whatsoever is lovely, or praiseworthy, or of good report, we seek after these things."  13th Article of Faith

Praise and bless whenever you can.  Not just people, but God, Yourself, His creations, Life, and the things around you.  ...it's worth it's weight in gold!