For several years, I found myself challenged at work—the staff was drawn to gossip, criticism, and disrespect for both employers and other employees. For quite some time, it was hard just to be there. Sometimes I had to pray about this situation hourly.
Although it was tempting to quit, and thus escape, I knew that Christian Science teaches that our birthright involves proving dominion over all untoward experiences, and that consistently praying to understand this would bring about any needed adjustment, either through a change in the atmosphere or my removal from it.
I strove to see the Christ expressed in all my co-workers, to practice the Golden Rule, and consistently to express impartial, Christian love to all employees—irrespective of their responses. The Bible asks, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" (Rom. 8:35) Jesus promised in the Sermon on the Mount, "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake ... for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you" (Matt. 5:11, 12). I knew that God, as Love, would not keep me in a situation that was not blessing me as well as others.
