A Spiritual Response To Gun Control The longevity of our lives does not come by depending on guns to guide us through

the day. The source of life comes from the spirit of the deity that lives within us. In fact, dependence on weapons, while neglecting the inner goodness, will instigate violence. We know the intent of those who espouse weaponry by their relationship to the fruit of the spirit. Where love, goodwill, and kindness should be, they want to supply weapons within attitudes of hatred, cruelty, and ill-intent. At the sign of peace, meekness, and gentleness, they incite conflict with harsh arrogance as they remind you of your right to access guns. When we convey faith, joy, and goodness, they paint a picture of hopelessness, sadness, and evilness as they hand you firearms. Within patience, self-control, and perseverance, they try to stop the goodness to make you impatient, interwoven with out-of-control violence. They want you to use guns to settle your frustrations. A healthy world is not formed by enabling guns. That is accomplished through spiritual fruitfulness in our thoughts, emotions, and behavioral responses. Our communities are not made more secure by depending on firearms to comfort us. A tranquil society comes by experiencing an inner peace. We discover acceptance into a community, but not by being comrades with weapons. Harmony comes through the spirit of love, goodwill, and tolerance. The value we hold to others is not based on our esteem of guns. Mutual respect comes as we honor one another's inner goodness. Our words and deeds are not summarized by a vocabulary full of ballistics. What we say and do conveys the spirit of goodwill to others. Some people want to deny you the right to joy, peace, and love. What they do is instill sadness and anger as they insist on your right to weapons. They do not bring agreement to peacemakers, but desire to incite violence. They refuse to accept the spirit of peace, meekness, joy, gentleness, and love. There are reservoirs of people whose intent is to desolate the spiritual fruit to cause a feeling of intense dislike or disapproval toward somebody or something. Then they invoke gun rights. The attitudes that exit from them are haters who espouse gun rights to incite violence. They are filled with pessimism, negativism, harshness, and are quarrelsome. They do not relate fruitfully to others, but encourage access to weapons to accompany the frown in your eyes. Hostile attitudes, mixed with a desire for guns, transfer through people who are desolate of spiritual fruit. They are full of inner frustrations, anxiety, and are fed up with daily strife. The hostile intent to possess guns enters into us through the feelings we have about our worth to others. Some people will say and do terrible and nasty things to lower self-esteem, and deflate the ego. They want us to feel unworthy for not defending the right to have weapons. They will even insinuate that to be a valuable citizen of your country you need to esteem the possession of weapons. They imply that it is necessary to defend your way of life." You might accept that reasoning to gain a certain degree of praise, to bolster your sense of worth. However, your belonging will be among those who espouse gun rights, but neglect the divine goodness that lives within. The spiritual fruit will become desolate, and you will become an abomination to the country you say you want to defend.

People are susceptible to adopting attitudes of aggressive gun rights for apparent reasons. They feel that to be an accepted citizen of their country, it is necessary to defend their way of life. They do that in physical, or earthly ways, because they are not in tune with the divine inner presence. That presence places love, peace, faith, and joy in thoughts and emotions to guide behaviors. However, from an earthly reasoning, the spiritual fruit becomes desolate within them, and they become an abomination to those around. We can interrupt the cycle of feeling a need to embrace weapons to make us feel safe and secure. That is done by realizing that our security comes through the deity that lives within us. That deity is the producer of spiritual fruit that gives blossoms of peace within our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Through our persona, flows the manifestation of peace and harmony for people around the world. We respond to hostility through the soft and moist tenderness of our inner being where smiles, hugs, and love exists. In the presence of a loving smile, there are no weapons, nor hostile desires. We can assess that a safe and secure environment comes through the spiritual fruit of peace, given of the divine presence of our inner being. The diagnosis is that some people desolate the goodness within us, and insist that we declare our right to own weapons. Even so, we plan to proclaim our right to honor the deity within us, the source of all goodness. We implement that plan by responding to conflict, strife from the soft and moist tenderness of our inner being. We evaluate how we are doing through the rewards of the spiritual fruit. When we feel joy, peace, love, and faith within us, there is no room for weaponry. Then we have exercised our rights fruitfully.