Christian Science parents who had stood steadfastly for the truth in teaching their son that he must obey Principle count among their most cherished rewards his remark on his first day of leave from the armed services during World War II. It was this: "If there is any one thing I have been grateful for these past months, it is that I had been taught to obey." He now realized his strength was the reward of obedience to Principle, not person. He said he also had compassion for his companions who had not previously learned this lesson and were finding the new demands so difficult. He realized that parents who teach their children to obey are kind, not restrictive. It was gratifying to him and his parents to know that even though some were learning the meaning of obedience later than he had, they too would reap its rewards.
The basis of obedience in Christian Science is the truth of God and man. In the Christian Science Sunday School and at home children learn through the study of the Bible and Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy that God is Love, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, Principle, the great I AM, and that man is His expression. Mrs. Eddy writes, "The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them."Science and Health, p. 295;
Understanding the truth that man is idea, both parents and children find it natural to express God, the Mind that made them. Basically, then, and for both parents and children, obedience is listening to and obeying the voice of God. Any thought unlike God is a lie. Refusal to obey lying suggestions is rewarded by increasing strength and joy in individual experience. Each resistance to evil and obedience to God, good, enables one to understand that the inward voice is the voice of God.
