Tenderness, sharing, watchfulness, and unselfed love are some of the Godlike qualities of motherhood, and they are all needed in Sunday School teaching. These qualities have a healing, enlightening, liberating influence—a joy available to men and women alike in their expression of both the fatherhood and motherhood of God. While superintendents, registrars, hostesses, librarians, and musicians can enhance this aspect of Sunday School, teachers especially need to develop their sense of God's motherly qualities.
The Bible gives many illustrations of motherhood. The "virtuous woman" of Proverbs rises early, works willingly, is wise in her purchases and practical in household management. She shows compassion for the poor, speaks with kindness and wisdom, and receives "the fruit of her hands." Prov. 31:31. Likewise, the teacher, readying the Sunday School lesson with research and prayer, is alert to pupils' special needs and delights in their spiritual growth.
Such motherly traits are our reflection of God, Soul. They bring out alertness, quiet thought, and receptivity in the pupils. Certain that man is the beloved image of the Father-Mother God, the teacher is ready to share with the pupils this understanding of at-one-ment, helping them to glorify God.
Discerning the right from the wrong, the real from the unreal, is fundamental in raising children. When confronted with error, the child can be wisely guided, led by qualities that the Sunday School teacher reflects. This shepherding education encourages the child to choose right, loving thoughts natural to him and to prove for himself that error is a dream of nothingness, while God is fully real and substantial. God's children are eternally good, never naughty or sickly. Each child can know and feel the security of his spiritual status as the reflection of God. He can be assured of protection through Soul's caring, instructing, warning, and guiding influence. Mrs. Eddy writes, "A mother is the strongest educator, either for or against crime." Science and Health, p. 236.
The Sunday School staff needs to be alert to comparisons between "good" and "poor" teachers and pupils. A child may lapse into personal adulation of an instructor. Or the teacher may be tempted to humanly "mother" the children. Such false claims of personality can be negated as we resort to the real motherhood of Truth and Love. The universal family and divine parentage of the Father-Mother God obliterate the suggestion of inequalities among teachers or pupils. Man is the unlimited offspring of incorporeal Mind, individually expressing the motherhood of Soul. Teacher and child are both subject to one divine Parent. Idolizing and favoritism are avoided when we understand that Love is all-inclusive.
Idolatry of age, size, and experience might accompany personality worship. But Mother Love does not permit such variants in its ideas. Man's unity with God is inviolable; separation from Love's supreme direction is impossible. Man is not an entity possessing age or physique; he is timeless, infinitely loved, freely provided with perfect intelligence and perception. This truth is available to both teachers and pupils, no matter what their earthly experience or appearance.
Young people are especially interested in results. Theories and intellectual discussions are not substitutes for actual healing. Vivid parables, clear explanations, and direct proofs of Truth's power such as Christ Jesus gave us can dissolve ignorance and malice. There is no haziness in divine motherhood. Mrs. Eddy advises: "The tender mother, guided by love, faithful to her instincts, and adhering to the imperative rules of Science, asks herself: Can I teach my child the correct numeration of numbers and never name a cipher? Knowing that she cannot do this in mathematics, she should know that it cannot be done in metaphysics, and so she should definitely name the error, uncover it, and teach truth scientifically." The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 235. Such Christian Science practice has great drawing power for Sunday School pupils.
Only by our taking up the cross can this vital attraction have tangible results. The trials that the teacher of truth faces were well known to Mrs. Eddy. However severe the problems, she knew the joy of victory, which comes from working with God.
Centuries ago, willingness to rely on God was shown by a Shunammite mother whose only son apparently died in her lap at noon. As she prepared to visit Elisha, the prophet, her husband tried to dissuade her, saying: "Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath." She answered, "It shall be well." II Kings 4:23. Refusing to accept her son's death, this mother sought God through Elisha's help. Soon the son was restored to life. It must have been a difficult time, but the spirituality of her motherhood sustained her.
So when a Sunday School pupil "drops out," by either failing to attend or by not participating in the class, the teacher can know that there is no separation from the law of Life, Christian Science. No matter what the appearance, "it shall be well," for the pupil cannot be removed from the guiding, protecting Christ that is within him. His love for the Life that in reality has never left him will be restored.
Like the Shunammite, the inspired Sunday School teacher knows that the burden of the cross is really the overcoming of material beliefs. We confirm the nothingness of error by a clearer realization of God's allness. Progress becomes apparent through the pupils' demonstrations of God's power in their lives.
This power is readily available, but to solve mankind's difficulties demands clear understanding of divine Principle. As we interact with our pupils, we share and learn more about this radiant at-one-ment of God and man.
The earth, 0 Lord,
is full of thy mercy:
teach me thy statutes. . . .
Thy hands have made me and fashioned me:
give me understanding,
that I may learn thy commandments. . . .
Let thy tender mercies come unto me,
that I may live:
for thy law is my delight.
Psalms 119:64, 73, 77
