LIKE MANY WOMEN, I've faced obstacles because of my gender. But nothing compares to when I became a single parent. It seemed that people were constantly giving me advice. They appeared to think that because I was no longer married, I was inept, materially and emotionally handicapped, and physically incapable of managing my affairs. My father, for example, tried to talk me out of buying a house because he felt I wouldn't know how to maintain it or be able to operate the furnace.
At first, these kinds of comments made me feel uncertain and inadequate. But I'd been learning through my study of Christian Science that God loves me and that He created me whole. A sentence from Science and Health about generic man — which includes both men and women — gave me hope. It states, "Man is God's reflection, needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete." Science and Health, p. 527.
I knew that I needed to fully understand that I wasn't a half of anything. That being whole meant I was the full expression of God — of everything lovely, intelligent, courageous, and strong.These ideas gave me the impetus to challenge the limitations that were being suggested to me, including the opinion that I couldn't manage a house. In fact, when my mortgage was approved, I could almost hear God saying, "You are My beloved daughter in whom I am well pleased." See Matt. 3:17. I felt He was telling me, "You have all the knowledge you need to do anything because you are My expression."
