Workbook · Part I
Lesson 123
I thank my Father for His gifts to me.
What this lesson is saying
Today’s idea is: “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” In ordinary English: Thank God for what is already given. Gratitude is seeing, not manners.
Giving and receiving are the same motion in this teaching. What you offer someone — a blessing, a ranking, a withheld kindness — is what you keep. The insult comes home. The blessing comes home. Give the thing you would like to live in.
You do not have to believe it first. You use the words on one real judgment — of someone, of yourself, of a situation — and then you take the next ordinary step.
This is not saying
This is not a bargain: I will be kind so they will change. It is not keeping score. It is noticing that the mind you use on them is the mind you have to sit in.
Why this can change a day
Relationships stall when we wait to receive first. This lesson makes the first move local: patience, a clean word, attention, a dropped case. That is how the day stops being a ledger.
In your day
Same idea, three ordinary places — a relationship or encounter, the case against yourself, and a situation at work or at home. You do not need a special mood.
With someone
You greet someone you think you love, and still rank them — late, messy, not trying.
What to do
Say the words as written: “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” There will be no one left out, including the ones you like. Drop the ranking. Speak as you normally would. You do not have to pretend they are easy.
Toward yourself
A political enemy, a public figure, a ‘them’ you have never met and already hate.
What to do
Say the words as written: “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” No exceptions. You do not have to vote for them. You do have to drop the wish to hurt. The mind is the same mind.
At work, at home, or in a situation
Tomorrow is on trial — a meeting, a what-if, a verdict not yet in — and this hour is already lost.
What to do
Say the words as written: “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” Make the one plan that is actually due. Come back. This hour has a next step. Take it. Leave the later hour.
Two voices in the same mind
Hear which one is running. Then today’s idea, on a real person — or on you.
Unloving thought
Love has exceptions. I can hold them and the case. The ranking is how I keep them honest.
Jesus’s way
“I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” Give the thing you want: patience, a clean word, attention. Giving is how you find out you had it. Do not keep a debt.
Spalding · 2019 · episode #325
Jesus’s commentary for Lesson 123
Tina reads the official workbook lesson first. Then she channels. The video is the source. The notes below are study notes of that sitting — not a transcript, and not A Year of Forgiveness.
After the reading
In the video · Jesus speaking
This is the channeled portion — after Tina has read the lesson. Study notes of that sitting. Not a transcript.
- “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” Father, here, is Source — intelligent, benevolent, not a judge.
- Say the idea as a return, not as a plea from exile.
- After Tina reads Lesson 123, the channeling is living “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” He will not let it stay a slogan. Use these words. Do not swap them for a thought you like better.
How to sit today
Part I · Forgiveness
The idea is above. This is the one sitting this number asks — how often, how long, and the words. Not a second lesson.
- How often
- Two extended sittings, plus hourly remembrance, plus when temptation arises
- How long
- Fifteen minutes twice is the standard for this stretch of Part I
- Through the day
- A reminder on the hour — even a minute if that is all you have.
- When shaken
- When the day’s idea is the medicine, use it on the actual situation, not later in a chair.
How
- Read Lesson 123’s idea (and the prayer or specific form it gives). Spend the sitting in that idea, then give the rest of the day to remembering it.
Longer sitting
Two extended sittings — fifteen minutes twice is the standard for this stretch
- Today’s idea is: “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.”
- Read the idea (and the prayer or specific form the official lesson gives). Spend the sitting in that idea.
- Say, slowly: “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.”
- Let related thoughts come. Return to the idea when the mind wanders. Give the rest of the day to remembering it.
Short / hourly
A reminder on the hour — even a minute if that is all you have
- Say, slowly: “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.”
When shaken
When the day’s idea is the medicine, use it on the actual situation, not later in a chair
- Say, slowly: “I thank my Father for His gifts to me.”
These scripts follow the workbook’s own method for this number — duration, frequency, and the sentences it asks you to use. They are a study paraphrase, not a replacement. Read the official lesson at acim.org and follow any wording it gives that is more specific than this card.
Words you may not know
Full glossaryCourse words do not mean what church, psychology, or ordinary English usually mean. These notes are for this lesson — tap a word.
Other voices — Tina, Ra, Carla
Short notes from the four streams. The teaching above is the lesson. These are doors if you want them.
Spalding
“I thank my Father for His gifts to me.” Father, here, is Source — intelligent, benevolent, not a judge. You have not left. Say the idea as a return, not as a plea from exile.
Watch this lesson’s commentaryRa
This lesson is practice in polarizing with the person in front of you. Service to others is not a slogan. It is whether you treat them as the same being you are.
Open streamRueckert
A wanderer on Earth does not need a different lesson. She needs this one, done with her hands. Carla's whole archive is the proof: contact follows a life, it does not replace it.
Open stream