Many of us—as parents, relatives, educators, or simply members of a community—have opportunities to share the joy of working with young people. And our contacts with them can be just that—a joy! Not a superficial pleasure but a deep-down, spiritual joy that has its source in, and is sustained by, the understanding that man is made in the image and likeness of God.
What basically determines how much joy we experience in our contacts with young people? Isn't it how we think about them? Shakespeare wrote, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Hamlet, Act. II, scene 2.
A high-school principal discovered through his study of Christian Science that his understanding that man is created by God in His image and likeness provided a healing basis on which to establish his relations with students. At the start of the new school year, this principal was walking down a hall full of teen-agers when he came across three boys who were off by themselves, talking together in undertones. One of them had come to the school with a police record, and in company with the other two had caused trouble throughout the previous year. In less time than it takes to relate this, a series of thoughts came to the principal that affected his relations with those boys from that time on.
