Youthisms

Christ Church Unity's Youth of Unity

�� Youthisms

On August 1, 2001, the North Kansas City Y.O.U. Chapter held our Youthisms service at Christ Church Unity. It was a wonderful experience with speaking, singing, music, meditation, and inner reflection. Each Y.O.U. participant got to discuss his or her spiritual beliefs and share his or her talents in a loving spiritual envirnment. On this page, the Y.O.U. will share with you the Youthisms we related during this service. We hope you enjoy them!

We opened the Youthisms service with our Y.O.U. Up-Clap, followed by the song "Peace Like A River." Next came Jenna Busey with the introduction, announcements, and greetings.Then Ethan Haynes led us through The Lord's Prayer.

Dena Sherwood opened the talks with her Youthism on growing.
(We will have her Youthism posted shortly). Following Dena was Kelly Jones--you can read her speech below!

�� Hello! My name is Kelly and I'm the Spirituality officer for the Kansas City North YOU chapter. One night, I was sitting in Perkins writing in my journal and drinking my cup of coffee when spirit moved me to strike up a conversation with an older, grandfatherly gentleman sitting at the table next to me. Spirit told me he had something to say that I needed to hear. I'm sitting there thinking, "Come on Spirit! I came to Perkins so that I could process what's been going on, not learn another huge lesson." But after much prodding, Spirit, of course, won the battle and I began talking to the guy. We chatted politely and the I got a call on my cell phone. Stephanie, one of my good friends, had just recently gotten her license and couldn't quite figure out how to get to Perkins to meet me. So, she decided to stay put. The older man laughed and said to me, "Sometimes you gotta get lost before you can find yourself." Ding! Ding! Ding! Spirit was right again. I asked the man if I could quote him. I don't think he realized how serious I was.
�� We are here on this physical plane to travel our path and learn our lessons. Sometimes we get lost. But the adventure of getting lost is the only way to find your way to your true self. We're all sitting up here today, sharing our own personal religions with you. But every one of us had to mess up a few times to get where we are. Most of us are too stubborn to take anyone's word for it. Truthfully I wouldn't have it any other way. I've watched these beautiful people travel their paths and occaisionally get lost, but it's paid off. We are balanced and we are beautiful. WE are beautiful children of God. HMMMMMMM!
�� The biggest lesson I've learned in my lifetime is to truly accept myself for what I am and to express that openly. I hadn't realized how important that was to me until a good friend of mine gave his truth talk at Bi-Regi (a bi-regional Y.O.U. rally). He told us, "Be that person you are in the bathroom." This sent me thinking, and he is so right! Where else are you more comfortable with yourself? You're locked in a little room singing in the shower or into your hairbrush and dancing to music only you can hear. And it's okay to let that out in the bathroom or your bedroom because no one's there to judge you. But people deserve to see that! They deserve to see your true spirit, the one you let out when no one's watching. BE that person you are in the bathroom. Show the world your light! Let it Shine!
�� There is a balance to this, though. Not only should you express that spirit, you have to behold it in others! Realize the power of the word "Namaste." Buddha said, "Better than a meaningless story of a thousand words is a single word of deep meaning which, when heard, produces peace." Namaste, roughly translated, means "the spirit in me beholds the spirit in you."
�� Right here and right now, I am in perfect balance with myself and the universe. The challenges in my life have shaped me, mind, body, and soul. I am happily floating in my bliss. Sure I've gotten lost a few times, but I'm exactly where I need to be.
�� Namaste.

Kelly's talk was followed by a speech on open-mindedness from Stephanie Green, who is now our chapter's Communications officer. [Her youthism will soon be posted here.] After Stephanie's speech, we sang another song "We are Opening."
�� Then Jenny Nielsen gave her speech. Scroll down to read it here.

�� Hi! My name is Jenny Nielsen. I'm sixteen years old and I've been a part of the Y.O.U. for about six months now, and I really enjoy it. One of my favorite things about Unity is how it allows for and inspires so much personal expression and interpretation of God through each member's unique spiritual consciousness.
�� One of my strongest beliefs is that God's energy is everywhere in this whole universe. Every Sunday, in the Unity Prayer of Protection, we recite "Wherever we are, God is." One of the most important things to remember about this prayer is that key phrase, "Wherever WE are." God is everywhere WE are because God is inside us, as individuals. It's important to nourish this God force within us, because by communing with this one true power, we're put in charge of our own lives and all things become possible,
�� I try to nourish my personal God force every day through prayer, meditation, or writing--or just by doing things that make me happy. By making our hearts happy, we really come in touch with that personal God energy inside us.
�� Weirdly enough, one of the things that makes me happy is reading books on quantum physics. And it was through quantum physics that I came in touch with the idea that, to a certain degree, we all create our own realities. Quantum physicists have made the amazing discovery that randomly moving, sub-atomic particles react differently when people are aware of them--in other words, when people are observing them and watching what they're doing. When people aren't watching these electrons, they sort of fade into an obscure, wave-like state of possibility--in other words, they're everywhere at once and literally make every possible move they can make at once. It is only when people actively watch them, through the detector screen, that the particles collapse into a normal state and make their single, supposedly random chosen move. The person watching the electron has literally changed that electron's course simply through his or her awareness of that electron. The key word here is awareness, awareness is a powerful thing.
�� By being aware of the God force within us, we can do more than change the courses of electrons. We can create our own reality by taking on a positive attitude.
Through our positive awareness, we can attract better things and accomplish more. Every time I have a new project to do, I� try to focus my God energy on accomplishing my goal. I am going to get an A on that math test. I am going to finish my short story. I will do a good job on my part on the Unity Youthisms service (hopefully!).
�� The power of affirmation was affirmed to me almost a year ago, when I had to go to the hospital for a week. I was actually supposed to be in the hospital several days longer than that. But of course I didn't want to be there that much longer, and on the last night I spent there I just took hold of all the God force inside of me and said to myself, "I'm going to go home tomorrow. The next morning I cheerfully announced to a nurse that I was going to go home that day--she didn't quite believe me. But that very morning the doctor decided I was healthy enough to leave. Prayer and affirmation really work!
�� God is everywhere. If you look hard, you can find him in any part of the Universe. It's recently been discovered that stars and solar systems release water at birth, thereby providing future planets with the single most important ingredient to life. God will and does provide. But in order to take advantage of God's offerings, I believe that we must become aware of the God force within ourselves.
�� And that's my Youthism for tonight.

�� ---More Youthisms to Come, so stay tuned---