Some time ago, I began praying more expansively about family, the community in which we lived, and the world in general. I began earnestly trying to heal, at least in my own thoughts, some of the world's problems. Specifically, my prayers dealt more and more with children's needs.
At first I felt inadequate to help find any real solution to these needs or even to derive any comfort from my prayers, but I persisted in bringing my thoughts in line with what I knew to be true. I knew that God sees each one of His children as innocent, pure, spiritual, surrounded by His love, with no sense of evil. I also knew that hopelessness, anger, and violence were basic denials of God's presence and love. Since these denials implied that there is life apart from God, they had to be lies about God and His creation.
I thought about the completeness and maturity of each one of God's children. I came to see the inherent goodness and perfection that each of us has as His son or daughter. I realized that removing the clichés and stereotypes about age, any age, involves a fundamental change in a person's concept of manhood and womanhood from the mortal to the spiritual. We can lift thought above what seems to be to what truly is.
