In Love and Law, Ernest Holmes writes, "Since our word creates always, it stands to reason that we have got to be very careful in sowing the seed. You cannot contradict nature and get an affirmative result. You cannot mix up thought, negative and positive and get a steady stream of affirmative consciousness and results. Your consciousness, your creative power, is limited to the amount of belief you have, the word you accept. If you believe you are living in an imperfect universe, it is imperfect to you. God has not erred. God has not made a mistake. There is nothing wrong."

In Don Miguel Ruiz's book, The Four Agreements, he writes, "The first agreement is the most important one and also the most difficult to honor: Be impeccable with your word. It sounds very simple, but it is very, very powerful."

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

Impeccable means "without sin," and a sin is something you do or believe that goes against yourself. It means not speaking against yourself, to yourself or to others. It means not rejecting yourself. To be impeccable means to take responsibility for yourself, to not participate in "the blame game." Regarding the word, the rules of "action-reaction" apply. What you put out energetically will return to you. Proper use of the word creates proper use of energy — putting out love and gratitude perpetuates the same in the universe. The converse is also true. Impeccability starts at home. Be impeccable with yourself, and that will reflect in your life and your relationships with others. This agreement can help change thousands of other agreements, especially ones that create fear instead of love.

It is interesting reflecting on gossip. It is so easy to share someone else's story, or to gather support by sharing something out of context. I look back at times when I was having a disagreement with someone, and how I would share "my side" of the situation with my friends to gather support for me and against them. Sometimes we gossip simply by sharing someone else's story — when someone asks, "How is Billy doing?" instead of saying, "You should call Billy, I know he'd love to hear from you," we share what we know.

Remember the old TV show — some of you won't, you're not old enough — where the host would whisper something in one person's ear, and they'd turn and whisper what they heard to the person beside them? By the end of the row, the last person was asked to repeat what they'd heard, and it was never even close to what was originally said. Speaking with integrity is about speaking from your experience, not someone else's.

Before you speak, ask: is this my word to give? Your word is yours to keep impeccable — what will you do with it today?

Blessings on your journey,
Rev. Gayle