Month: September 2022

“Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.” * Let’s add another strong  dimension of thought to this scriptural instruction: Depart from fear of evil, and understand the power and presence of good, God, and dwell for evermore. The  Message Bible says “Turn your back on evil, work for the good and don’t quit.”

Today the world seems overrun with experiences of evil, hurricanes, fires, floods, wars. Each one of us is praying earnestly, and with conviction, to understand the power of the presence of God, good right where evil seems to be.  As we each see the unreality of evil, we will see the reality of God, ever-present good. Find this good in your life, acknowledge the good that God is, and reach out with your prayer to embrace our world, to understand the government of our Father-Mother for each and everyone. Let’s love God good, more than we are tempted to fear evil.

Let’s do this today and realize everyone is in the wake of divine Love, right where the fear is. We can do as Mrs. Eddy did in the face of storms, – she would pray to see the face of God until that was all she saw, and the storm could dissipate. Let’s see God, good, the face of God, right where evil claims to be. Let’s do this loving prayer today.

*Psalms 37:27

….and there is always healing.

We will see the answer; humble prayer will give us a solution, and it will bless everyone.  For me, this is the premise, the basis of thought. I set this conviction forth before anything else. It begins my prayer. I declare this truth to be true.

In this week’s Bible Lens, we can read that faith and trust underlie all our prayers for help. What is required is bold affirmation of God‘s reign while simultaneously waiting patiently. Waiting patiently brings with it a depth of trust and commitment to God’s government. We learn, through patient waiting to be expectant of God’s grace and God’s love, evidenced in an adjustment of whatever seems to need adjusting.  Jesus taught his disciples to have more faith in the Christ than in their own opinions or wisdom. We must do the same. Patient waiting with faith often reveals to us what needs to be removed or released. Patient waiting brings active revelation.

Our God is available every time we turn with a need in prayer. Turn to your God expectant of guidance, with such love for God, that you know good is the only result. When in doubt, love God more than you fear the problem or the need.

Be that disciple of Christ Jesus by loving God, and you will feel God loving you. There is an answer, a solution, and a healing in your spiritually alert understanding. Christ Jesus lived his love for God in every moment of his day and his life.  He knew and trusted the depth of that relationship for good everywhere he moved, in every place, every relationship, every need. Can we?

I had a wonderful insight today. A friend told me her daughter suggested to her mom, “You be you!” As if to say, we are very different,  you’ll be who you are and I’ll be who I am.

When I heard that, I loved its truth! I had such an influx of thought that we, by a statement like that, are not only being told to be who we are, but we are told to recognize who and what and why we are. What an inspiration that is!

Because who we are has nothing to do with generations, or age, or mother and daughter, or father and son. It doesn’t matter if we were flower children of the 60s or millennials today, or living on the moon in some further out-of-the-way location!  It matters who we are, and how we understand ourselves and our purpose, which, of course, truly is as our spiritual identity. It matters that we know who we are.

We are, each one, an individual idea of one infinite divine Mind. We fulfill the definition of ourselves by being the expression of that Mind, expressing the qualities of intelligence, integrity, alertness, ingenuity, discernment. That is the truth about every idea that has existed forever. We are the idea of divine Love, and this is seen in our being loved children of our Father-Mother God. We live love, kindness, consideration, compassion, tenderness, gentleness. That is who each and every one of us truly is. Our God has defined us as His expression, Her loved child. That has nothing to do with age, location, generation. And everything to do with our eternal, infinite spiritual identity.

We see this example recently in one who knew, and continues to know, who she is.  Her Majesty, The Queen of England, knew who she was and she continued to expressed that understanding, that dimension of thought,  from an early age.  Her understanding of true humanhood is expressed in seven decades of service. The world did not throw her off, nor did she throw off the world. Her example will be ours forever. She knew who she was in her love for God, her love for good, in her faithful service to her family, her country, and for mankind.

Why is that different for any of us? It isn’t. We must be who we are, know who we are, and live to that highest understanding. Only then do we fulfill our niche in time and eternity and give the best we have to our world.

….when we recognize, begin, and stay with our ever-increasing awareness of the absolute allness of God. There is no outside to God. In fact, no outside to the good that is God.  This is a spiritual fact, and as we grow in spiritual understanding we see the goodness of God everywhere.

There is nowhere you can go, no place you can be, that is outside of the all-good that is divine, that is God.  Our confidence in life, in living, in protection and provision of good comes more naturally and easily when our day begins with gratitude for God, for divine Love’s everpresence. Hold this in your thought as you begin your day.

In an article entitled  “The New Birth” we read, “We must learn that God is infinitely more than a person, or finite form, can contain; that God is a divine Whole, and All, an all-pervading intelligence and Love, a divine, infinite Principle; and that Christianity is a divine Science. This newly awakened consciousness is wholly spiritual; it emanates from Soul instead of body, and is the new birth begun in Christian Science.” *

We wake up morning by morning, more awake than ever to God’s ever-present love. Enjoy being awake!

* Mary Baker Eddy‘s,  Miscellaneous Writings: 15

What makes our life better? Simple: Caring for others through loving and living Good. We know our lives are better when we’re dedicated to something bigger than ourselves. We know our days are happier when we’re loving and caring for others, as well as taking care of ourselves. We know unselfish goodness, expressions of love, care,  kindness, generosity, enable us to make a better contribution to our world. Christian Science shows us how to love others by being dedicated to good, to God. That’s our safe, inspired place.

“Good demands of man every hour, in which to work out the problem of being. Consecration to good does not lessen man’s dependence on God, but heightens it. Neither does consecration diminish man’s obligations to God, but shows the paramount necessity of meeting them.” *

Consecration means to give one’s self unreservably to the service of God.  Daily loving God will daily define how we love others. It will keep us safe, help us to discern others’ needs and how to help appropriately. All the time we’ll feel our love for God and God‘s love for us. Wonderful, wonderful opportunities to love will give us a life filled with holiness and happiness. How blessed we are!

* Science and Health: 261

From Cindy

Recently, I had the privilege of meeting up with a former teaching partner.  While reminiscing, we recanted how we had both enjoyed working together for so many years because of our philosophy of discipline.  We used to say to a child who had done something wrong, “Oh, too bad, that was a poor choice.”  Our tone and steadfast stand allowed the children to see they had made a poor choice, and could change their behavior.  Our partnership in clear, unwavering discipline made our students feel safe and made our classrooms run very harmoniously.

With this week’s lesson on the prodigal son, I thought about how the son “came to himself” or realized he had made a poor choice and could at once change his behavior and be in harmony.  It is much like being porter at the door of thought.  If we admit a thought that was a poor choice, we can immediately turn from it and choose the right.  We don’t have to wallow around in poor choices, and use them as an excuse.  

Our choosing the good and rejecting the wrong, demonstrates the harmony of God’s government.  

At a very difficult time in my life, I was choosing to be angry rather than seeing what God had always been doing for me even in the difficult times.  This same colleague, in effect, told me I was making a poor choice to be angry.  She said she couldn’t be around me at lunch anymore because I was too negative.  That got my attention!  And, she was right.  I saw I was making a poor choice in letting anger cloud my view of what God had been and was doing for me all along.  I then chose to let God, good, govern.  What a welcoming back to harmony!  Soon good was evident in all aspects of my life.  Lots of new views of harmony flooded in.  What a gift!  And, my colleague doesn’t even remember saying something to me!

When we get into  confusion, anger, or whatever, we can “at once change our course and do right!!”  This is confirmed in Science and Health. “ If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you can at once change your course and do right.” * I am grateful to know that a wrong choice is merely nothing, and that turning to the right and good is the only reality.

* S&H. 2