In the Gospel of Luke it is recorded of the boy Jesus that he "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man" (2:52). Surely it should be the goal of every parent to see a child increase daily in the divine favor, as well as in the human. The tendrils of love for God as good need to be strengthened until they develop into a healthy, fruitful vine which inclines always Godward, able to withstand any opposing onslaught.
The innocence of childhood needs to be bulwarked by consistent, specific prayer in order that it may mature into positive goodness. Such prayer constitutes a Christian Science treatment and is neither mysterious, laborious, nor ineffective. It is the quiet, effectual knowing of the truth of God and man as perfect Parent and perfect child; it is the steadfast refusal to accord identity or reality to evil. The basis of prayerful protective work, as it is understood in Christian Science, is the allness of good and the nothingness of evil. Evil must be nothingized, not merely minimized. Whether it appears as disease, sin, or accident, evil must be seen as without locality, without power to act, and without identity through which to act.
Mrs. Eddy had a deep love for children, as well as a keen recognition of the necessity of prayerfully supporting the innocence of their period of so-called immaturity until it ripens into the full understanding of manhood in the Christ-ideal. In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," she gives the following sage and helpful advice about children (p. 261): "Too much cannot be done towards guarding and guiding well the germinating and inclining thought of childhood. To mould aright the first impressions of innocence, aids in perpetuating purity and in unfolding the immortal model, man in His image and likeness."
