It is true that some persons learn to do a thing much more quickly than do others and so we have called them “smarter.” But this is a mistake for no one really possesses any more ability than does every other life; some, however, have made better use of their power than have others. This is true both as regards this present life as well as in former incarnations. Should you who read this be one of those who have been discouraged in the past because you had to work so hard in order to learn how to do things, just remember that you have stored up in you all the great wonderful power of the Universe and can learn to express it harmoniously and constructively along any line you may desire. The first step to take is to _recognize_ that this is true; then _recognize_ our union with this universal energy. Our God-self has this recognition in our inner consciousness and we begin to recognize it in the human mind through constantly affirming our oneness with it. We must be just as persistent in doing this as we are when we are learning to sew or to play on the piano, and no matter how many mistakes we may make at first, nor how little we seem to accomplish, we want to keep everlastingly at it. Many persons have the idea that it is only necessary to repeat an affirmation over a few times, or to say it in a half-hearted way and then the results they desire should manifest at once. When they are sick they seem to think that by saying “I am well,” or “I am not sick,” a few times that it ought to cure them and because it doesn’t then they get the idea that there is no power in thought. When we are sick it is because the recognition of our oneness with health and harmony has not been well developed, and we might as well expect a poorly developed musician to correctly play the masterpieces of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Wagner, as to expect a poorly developed and inharmonious health consciousness to produce a masterpiece in the way of a perfect physical body. A poorly developed musician can, with the aid of a good teacher and by persistent practice, learn to play everything which has ever been written by any of the great masters, and so can one who has a poorly developed and inharmonious health consciousness learn to rebuild his physical body in such perfect health and beauty that it will in truth become a fitting temple in which the living God in each life may dwell. But before one can become either the great master musician or the perfect creator of a beautiful and harmonious physical body he must “develop a consciousness” of his _oneness_ with whichever his ideal may be, whether of music, health, or whatever else he may desire.