Malala: Spiritual Hero

As happens every year, the December issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine honors this year’s Spiritual Hero. “This year,” says Editor & Publisher Rev. Dr. David Goldberg, “we honor the youngest person ever named our Spiritual Hero. Malala Yousafzai never set out to be a hero — spiritual or otherwise. She was a girl who wanted an education.”

As writer Julie Mierau gives context to this choice, she writes about Malala, “She stands apart as a powerful voice in the fight for educating girls worldwide, in her commitment to making change, in understanding the roles of women working for peace.”

Malala’s story of being shot by the Taliban at age 15 and her resultant recovery made headlines worldwide. During her recovery and rehabilitation, Malala writes, “It was then I knew I had a choice: I could live a quiet life or I could make the most of this new life I had been given.

 “I determined to continue my fight until every girl could go to school.”

Today, as she studies at the University of Oxford, she continues her fight to ensure girls receive 12 years of free, safe, quality education. She travels to countries where girls face seemingly insurmountable obstacles: crushing poverty, wars, child marriage, human trafficking and discrimination that prevents them from going to school. Through her foundation, the Malala Fund, she shines a bright light onto the world’s areas of greatest need, bringing awareness and intervention.

In her book I Am Malala, she sums up her mission: “Peace in every home, every street, every village, every country — this is my dream,” she writes. “Education for every boy and every girl in the world. … To see each and every human being with a smile of happiness is my wish.”

Courageous. Fearless. Defiant. Spiritual Hero. Malala.

Where Every Girl Can Learn

The mission of Malala Fund is clear: Create a world where every girl can learn and lead. The challenges, however, are seemingly insurmountable.

Ziauddin Yousafzai and his daughter Malala founded Malala Fund in 2013 with the goal of creating a more equal world by making sure all girls can go to school. The fund champions every girl’s right to a free 12-year education.

Malala Fund engages as an advocate for girls at local, national and international levels. It advocates for the resources and policy changes needed so all girls receive a secondary education. According to its website, “The girls we serve have high goals for themselves — and we have high expectations for leaders who can help them.”

“I raise my voice so that we will not lose another generation of girls,” Malala said in a speech on September 3, 2017, at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church.

“If you believe that every girl deserves to go to school,” she said, “if you believe that education gives girls a chance to build a better life; if you believe that 12 years of quality education is the right of every girl, no matter her race or religion; I ask you to join me and stand up for girls — at home and around the world.”

— Learn more at malala.org or in the December issue of Science of Mind magazine.

Celebrate the Festival of Lights

In Hebrew, the word Hanukkah means “dedication.” This eight-day Festival of Lights commemorates the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrian Greek army. It also celebrates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and the restoration of its menorah.

In the Jewish faith, the miracle of Hanukkah is that only one vial of oil was found in the Temple, with just enough oil to last for one day. And yet, the oil burned for eight full days.

The 2018 celebration of Hanukkah began at sundown on Sunday, December 2, and lasts until sundown on Monday, December 10.

In light of recent attacks on Jews, their temples and their faith, we reaffirm our oneness with all faiths, with all people. And we wish our Jewish family, friends and neighbors a Happy Hanukkah.

—Learn more about the history and celebration of Hanukkah at: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/hanukkah-2018/

With Me in Paradise

—by Dr. Ernest Holmes

God is all there is. God is love. Love is the motivating power of the whole universe. God is in everything; God is in everyone. Realizing that love is the great motivating power of life and knowing that God must be at the center of everything, today I am meeting this God in everyone and seeing the manifestation of His life in everything.

If there is any condemnation or animosity in me, I gladly loose it. I loose it and let it go as I turn to that silent Presence within me which gives all and withholds nothing. I enter into the harmony of eternal peace, into the joy of knowing that I am now in the Kingdom of God, from which no person is excluded. My yesterdays are gone forever, my tomorrows stretch forth into an endless future of pure delight.

And from out of the invisible there comes to me these words: Today Thou art with me in paradise.

— As heard on the radio show “This Thing Called Life” on Sunday, October 14, 1951, and excerpted in the December 2018 issue of Guide for Spiritual Living: Science of Mind magazine.