EVERYONE loves to have his neighbor think well of him. So much is this the mental habit with mortals that their lives are more or less influenced by this desire, which often assumes overweening proportions. They find themselves viewing their every proposed word or deed from the standpoint of what others will think of it. So strong is this tendency that it may be said to be a ruling motive with the human race. Because of this keen longing for the approval of mankind, it follows that there is, perhaps, no mental sense which causes more distress than misjudgment. Few if any have escaped the poignant sense of unhappiness which results from this form of human belief.
As a consequence of this longing for human approval, men are continually watching to see how they may rise above the misjudgment they so much dread and deplore. Since men generally approach their problems from a merely personal standpoint, they find themselves in this, as in other circumstances, confronted with merely personal opinions, which, taken at their best, are unreliable and unsatisfactory. Misjudgment being, therefore, always based on an unstable personal foundation, its conclusions are as fluctuant and uncertain as its basis.
It is therefore very plain to be seen that misjudgment can be disregarded only as men turn from person to Principle in their purposes and efforts. So long as they cling to personal desires they will inevitably continue to imagine they can gain something from merely personal approbation; but sooner or later such clinging will land them stranded in disappointment. So long as human belief can claim a witness it will be betrayed into misjudgment. Christian Science reveals the way to rise above all such misconceptions either in one's own thought or in regard to the thought of another, since it shows us that God, divine Mind, is alone capable of rendering right approval and of causing His ideas to reflect such approval to each other.
