 Let's use a little phrase for the ego, the wild child. We'll call it the wild child this morning. Why? Because the ego doesn't have a parent. We all know in this world, you know, that the children can have sometimes a little bit of a wild streak in there. And then the parents supposed to be very patient and loving, disciplining at times and so on and so forth. But we could say more guiding. You know, when the child was to just go off and do anything it wants, then the parent is there to offer guidance and wisdom. And you could say one thing about the ego is it doesn't have a parent. It's not only a wild child, it's a bastard wild child. And the thing about it is it doesn't have a parent. It doesn't have a source. It wasn't created. So it doesn't know what creation is. It has nothing creative about it. You know, when people talk about with music and art and all these different things being creative, that's not really created in the truest abstract sense. Creation is a state of mind. So we've got this health of nothing which we'll call the bastard wild child. And that thing, it's very erratic. It's, let's say, impulsive. It's very impulsive. If you're wild and you're erratic, you're impulsive as well. And in that sense, it has no steadiness to it. It has no stability to it. So why do we need commitments? Let's talk about what Suzanne said. If we could just come at the thing, well, if I just think of it in terms of committing in the present moment, then that feels much better. I can make people. Here's the wedding bell. I love you now. That's the end of the bell. You may now kiss the bride. But the thing about it is everyone who comes to this world or believes they're here in this world believes in the ego. And the ego is the denial of the present moment. It's the denial of the present moment, the denial of eternity. So even when we say, okay, I just want to make a commitment to the present moment, ultimately that's really deep down what you are committing to because that's your escape back to eternity, but to say the words commitment is different from actually committing. And we all know that. Sometimes we say, okay, I'm committed. Sometimes. I'm committed partially. I'm committed. The ego, of course, is the wild child. And in one sense, it's like the mind that is being asked to make a commitment is identified with the ego. So of course there's going to be resistance to the commitment because commitment is going to be a device that the Holy Spirit uses to bring the mind back into stability into stillness. So ego, wild child, impulsive doesn't even know what commitment is. Impulsiveness doesn't know what commitment is. So there's zero awareness of commitment. Now the Holy Spirit into a deceived mind has to introduce the concept, the idea of commitment as a device. Just like we talked about leader follower, teacher, student, you know, those are all of these devices. Introduce this commitment as a device and says, okay, I'm going to work with you on this one. Why is it important to have this device of commitment because the atonement which is the correction, which is the goal of the curriculum is a total commitment. Seeing the difference between the ego with no awareness of what commitment is and the atonement which is the escape from this realm is the total commitment. So this is why the Holy Spirit has to introduce the commitments. And it's really, they're just mind training commitments. When you commit to a marriage, for example, I mean some of the wedding vows that go on marriages, you know, till death do you part to death. It's kind of a morbid commitment. Anything that involves death, a better question that one before you. Say yes to the minister. Till death to you part. You're really going for something much beyond the death. You're actually going for a state of harmony. Till harmony dissolves the two of us and we merge in bliss and union. I like that a little better than till death do you part. So you could see the commitment is just a stepping stone idea that is designed to bring the mind toward total commitment which is the goal to introduce commitment and bring it there. That's why when we talk about monogamy or we talk about commitment to a diet or commitment to an exercise regimen or commitment to a martial arts program yoga even making a commitment some of you maybe thought, I don't know if I'm going to lose or not but maybe you felt I need to make a commitment to go and I'm going to pay for it but I need to make a commitment to go I don't know how it's going to fit into my schedule but I feel like a strong commitment to go to it. So we are getting opportunities to make these commitments as we go along and they can be very very guided by the Holy Spirit and they're all temporary. Let's make sure we understand that these are temporary devices not like signing in blood signing your soul away in blood sometimes ego will try to convince you that you're doing that but of course it's terrified of the commitment so that's why that comes in and as long as you start to see these are just temporary devices that are used and that the deeper you go with this commitment you do come more to the present moment to the actual present moment which is the atonement and so it is an alignment with that. That's where you get that easy feeling like that's really part of the goal that's what commitments are designed to do to take you there. As far as breaking commitments there's a big stigma about keeping them and breaking them it's really not so much about keeping them or breaking them but it's like again what is the guidance which advisor in your mind are you listening to there shouldn't be a stigma with breaking like a negative thing with keeping in the sense that there are times where the Holy Spirit wants you to keep a commitment and then there are times when the Holy Spirit will say now let that go I've got another assignment for you don't hold on to that one here's your next one so it's not so much a stigma around keeping or breaking it's more just what is guided what is guided what serves the whole is always a question underneath this can be involved with personal or interpersonal relationships with jobs with leases leases for houses or apartments condos and so forth it can involve a commitment to watch your neighbors dogs and cats there are all kinds of temporary commitments that are all of this used for mind training for helping to flush ego out of this hiding place and bring it up into awareness and then eventually just make that final commitment where you make the final call for God in an unequivocal way in other words you make a yes to God and not a but yes but yes although it's an unequivocal yes that would be the determinant in mind not a form thing so that's just a little mini talk on commitments