Have you ever wondered what it was about Solomon that made him so wise, as the biblical record given in I Kings 3 indicates? The chapter shows that it was a special blending of his qualities of understanding and caring, of his mind and his heart. And in preparing Solomon to follow him on the throne, David is quoted as saying, “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts”
(I Chronicles 28:9).
Evidently Solomon remembered his father’s advice, for soon after Solomon became king he reached out to God with that now famous prayer: “Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad” (I Kings 3:9).
As a Christian Scientist, I associate what Solomon called an “understanding heart” with the expression of divine Mind and Love, two of the seven terms Mary Baker Eddy uses in her writings as synonyms for God. (The other five are Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, and Truth.) I like to think of Mind and Love as going hand in hand, working together like a pair of equally weighted bookends.
