A “yoke” has been defined as a bar of wood uniting two animals, usually oxen, to work in the fields drawing heavy loads. Figuratively, a yoke is a symbol of burden and submission. Speaking through the prophet Isaiah, God declares, “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?” (Isaiah 58:6). Beliefs about aging may seem to bind us and be a heavy burden, but through the teachings of Christian Science, this yoke can be broken.
These beliefs begin with birth and attempt to affect us at every stage of human experience—infancy, adolescence, midlife, and old age. At whatever stage we or those we love appear to be, spiritual truths are available to break the yoke of burden and submission to educated theories and opinions regarding age. We can learn to be a law to ourselves and thereby negate and annul the so-called laws of material, mortal belief.
In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy exhorts, “Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake” (p. 442). Much could be said about what it means to be a law to oneself. But in regard to aging, I think it can be applied to mean that we should be alert throughout our days and nights to those generally held opinions and theories that would claim to have a negative effect upon everyone. They cannot affect us if we consciously place ourselves under the law of God, good, which sustains and maintains our health and well-being throughout all our days.
