Do you catch yourself mentally quarreling or being impatient with traffic or with some issue in regard to your position, school, church, or family? If you do, you could be acting like Xanthippe!
Early in my experience as a student of Christian Science, I was working with a group of people who were endeavoring to come to an agreement about a particular method to pursue. A lot of bickering went on and nothing was accomplished. I was greatly disturbed over this; I was really trying to pray about it and to apply truths learned through my study of Christian Science. One evening while I was washing the dishes and considering the problem, the word Xanthippe came to my thought with great emphasis. I remembered that Mrs. Eddy had mentioned this woman in Science and Health, and I immediately decided to find out who she was. In writing of the marriage relationship, Mrs. Eddy says, "Husbands and wives should never separate if there is no Christian demand for it.... If one is better than the other, as must always be the case, the other pre-eminently needs good company. Socrates considered patience salutary under such circumstances, making his Xantippe a discipline for his philosophy."
Science and Health, p. 66. From a dictionary I learned that Xanthippe was Socrates' peevish, quarrelsome wife. And I immediately saw a connection between this type of person and the bickering attitudes that had been troubling me. I understood that the insight was a reprimand from God, divine Mind, and I gladly decided to refuse to be or to see a peevish, quarrelsome, or ill-tempered person. I told no one of this experience but just hugged it to myself with gratitude for Mind's correction. Having seen what needed to be corrected, I prayed daily to be more patient, humble, loving, and compassionate. I could claim these qualities because they were mine as God's likeness, His reflection. Disciplining my thinking—a necessary step in correcting it—required much patience and persistence, but I gained support from the thought that what God did not cause or create was not real and had no power. Science and Health tells us, "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration."
Ibid., p. 259.
At the next meeting of the group, the problem that had caused so much dissension was not even mentioned and never came up again. My effort to correct my own thinking had paid off, and this enabled me to realize I could think truly and act rightly about any person, thing, circumstance, or event that might arise.
The earnest student of Christian Science will be corrected and guided by divine Mind in the effort to discern his fellowman's true nature. Science and Health explains, "The denial of material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spiritual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed the material senses."
Ibid., p. 91.
I felt I was accomplishing, in a small way, what I had set out to do when I began to study Christian Science. My aim was to find out how to become a better Christian and to learn what man is as the image and likeness of God. I was not seeking a physical healing (although I had several during this period). I had a strong desire to help myself and others through knowing God better. I was learning fast not to be deceived by the material senses. It is through spiritual sense only that we find our answers, our peace, our completeness. In other words I was consciously seeking regeneration, a new way of thinking. As Paul expressed it, I had begun to "put off the old man with his deeds; and . . . put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him."
Col. 3:9, 10.
What lessons in love, patience, and humility our Way-shower, Christ Jesus, taught his followers in the last hours before his crucifixion! His genuine humility was demonstrated when he washed the disciples' feet and told them they should wash one another's feet. Later, when one of them cut an ear off a servant of the high priest, Jesus immediately healed the servant. To me this expresses his patience with the disciple and his compassion for his fellowman.
It is important in our daily contacts with others not to allow their acts or remarks to make us peeved or impatient. It is a great help to keep in thought the correct view of man, God's image, who has no irritating qualities. That is the real man; any other is a deception. Evil in any guise is not real or powerful.
Spiritual insight and perception enable us to rise above turmoil and confusion when we are confronted with an unpleasant situation that might otherwise tempt us to retaliate. We learn from the Bible that "a soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger."
Prov. 15:1. Our need is to be alert, not to be caught off guard, and to refuse to see or to be a Xanthippe!
