Let's talk a little about being critical —the criticism that acknowledges and points out mistakes. It wouldn't be discriminating, wise, or honest to ignore mistakes—especially our own. You can't disregard complete blunders. Yet I've known from studying Christian Science that because God is perfect, man, His creation, has to be perfect. I began to realize that an appreciation of the good in things was being stolen from me by a preoccupation with what seemed bad. And yet how could I just look away from mistakes and still be honest?
Then someone related a simple experience. When asked about a person he knew, he had replied that he just didn't care for that individual—and immediately he had known within himself that such a view wouldn't do at all. He knew that in the logic of Christian Science he couldn't have two concepts of man, one perfect and the other unappealing.
All of a sudden I saw it! It's not that mistakes are ignored—it's that metaphysical accuracy is much more important. Seeing the good in people and refusing to give credence to the bad is metaphysically accurate! Metaphysical accuracy is part of my unceasing prayer in day-to-day living. Right here and now I can continuously bear witness to man as perfect; I can know that his perfection is substantial and permanent. Any evidence to the contrary is a mistaken mortal picture, not a mistake in spiritual fact.
