I was furious with a family member who had just verbally attacked my son. On the verge of yelling at her, I left the room, but was having all kinds of thoughts about what I could have said. I was mentally rehearsing these angry thoughts when I realized that I needed to change my thinking. But how? I needed help, so I went to the local Christian Science Reading Room to study the Christian Science Bible Lesson and listen in prayer for what God had to say about the situation.
Taking this step was just what I needed. God answered my prayers. Right in the first section of the Lesson was the Bible verse, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). The implication of this passage struck me hard. How could I let my light shine and do good works when I was so mad? Then I read from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, that Jesus “did life’s work aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to mortals,—to show them how to do theirs, but not to do it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility” (p. 18). I recognized that it was my responsibility to see both this family member and myself exactly the way Christ Jesus saw others—as perfect children of God.
In this first section of the Bible Lesson, I also read from the Bible that, through Jesus, God “hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (II Corinthians 5:18). Mary Baker Eddy explains that “Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love …” (Science and Health, p. 19). Love was what I needed to be “reconciled” to, but how could I love someone with angry scenarios creeping up in my mind, mulling over what I could have said to this person and what I should say the next time I saw her?
