EACH OF US HAS A RIGHT TO BE FREE IN EVERY WAY, including from negative mental influences. If anyone feels trapped or limited by such influences, Christian Science can help by showing how to think rightly about ourselves and those around us.
The starting point of right thinking is God, who is divine Mind, the one intelligence of the universe. This one Mind, pure and good, creates only good. The infinite Mind maintains each individual as its spiritual reflection, already including moral perfection and wholeness. This means that each of us actually embodies divine Mind's perfection.
If we're accepting a limited view of someone as a flawed mortal, then we're giving reality to a false sense of manhood or womanhood.
This wholeness and holiness of God, which characterizes and defines all that's real and permanent, comes to us in practical, tangible ways—to comfort, encourage, and heal. God's goodness redeems both ourselves and our view of those around us. As we discern the unchanging, spiritual reality of all things, this understanding lifts our thought above a limited sense of our own and others' identities to the true sense of being as flawless expressions of the Divine.
The Bible records Jesus as saying, "Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" (Matt. 10:34–37).
I've found it helpful to think of this passage from a spiritual perspective rather than literally. I like to think that Jesus didn't come to set us in conflict with a parent, a son, or a daughter, but to help us confront and be free of false concepts of those within our mental household. It's only a limited (and limiting) view of a mother-in-law, a limited (and limiting) view of a father, to which we should send "a sword." If we're accepting a limited view of someone as a flawed mortal, then we're giving reality to a false understanding of manhood or womanhood—we're "loving" that false sense more than the Christly man or woman that God created and loves.
To see those around us as perfect is Christian. In her autobiography, Retrospection and Introspection, Mary Baker Eddy spoke to this: "He who gains the God-crowned summit of Christian Science never abuses the corporeal personality, but uplifts it. He thinks of every one in his real quality, and sees each mortal in an impersonal depict" (p. 76).
When we view our neighbors as children of God, we also protect our own spiritual growth. Let's say a family member seems to be thoughtless and immature. If we accept that God's image and likeness includes characteristics so unlike God, then we accept that in some measure those characteristics are part of our nature, too. Such a view of another would create a stumbling block to our own mental freedom.
Whether another person seems to be a little less than perfect—or considerably less than perfect—we can be sure that this information is false. It's only a picture of mistaken identity, nothing more than an impersonal mental suggestion of imperfection. This picture really could have nothing to do with another person. Why? Because God's image and likeness is always good and perfect. When we eliminate from our own thinking a false view of another, that view cannot obstruct our own spiritual growth.
For example, when Jesus explained to his disciples that he would be going to Jerusalem to make his supreme sacrifice, Peter vowed that this wouldn't happen. Jesus "turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men" (Matt. 16:23). Jesus immediately recognized the impersonal claim of evil attempting to resist his mission. He saw that the kind of thinking that opposed his mission wasn't Peter's own thinking—such a thought couldn't have come from God—but was simply a manifestation of the false sense of intelligence that would oppose all things good and right.
The Bible says that even Jesus' own brothers didn't believe in him (see John 7:5). Imagine having a glorious message of salvation, healing works that prove the rightness of that message, and then your own family doesn't believe the message you've been preaching! But Jesus didn't let this discourage him. For example, once when his family sought him while he was preaching, he declared that his family was all those who do the will of God (see Matt 12:46-50).
Keeping the divine view of "family" lifts thought above a limited sense of our own situation and so shows that our true family is the universal family of God's ideas, always perfect, always doing God's will. By leaving behind a limited sense of family, we gain not only a more spiritual view of our own family, but also see more clearly the universal brother-sisterhood of the whole world.
However, we need to be aware of some of the ways we might unwittingly drop our spiritualized view of reality. For example, sometimes self-righteousness can sneak into our thoughts. In one of Jesus' parables, a Pharisee stands at the front of the synagogue and thanks God that he's better than others, including a publican at the back of the synagogue who recognizes his weakness but is praying sincerely (see Luke 18:10-14). Today, we might catch ourselves reasoning in a similar way, saying: "Thank God that I've been receptive enough to accept Christian Science. One day when others are ready, I'll tell them about it."
While it is true that most people around the world don't yet know of Christian Science, if I'm claiming that I have some understanding that another doesn't have, am I really seeing that there is only one Mind and that each of us reflects this one Mind? Wouldn't it be more consistent to look for evidence of this universal Mind in others?
When I first began to study Christian Science, the attitude of various family members toward it ranged from indifference to skepticism. But I was learning that there was one Mind governing all, and that the views of others couldn't prevent me from advancing. In praying about this situation, I realized that the ideas of Christian Science already embraced my family, and that I could share it with them, even if I never mentioned a word of it, through the way I live. Since then, all my immediate family have come to respect Christian Science and have a basic knowledge of Mary Baker Eddy, several have attended Christian Science lectures, and one of my siblings subscribes to the Christian Science Sentinel.
As we understand divine Mind is always communicating with its entire creation, we trust this fact about ourselves and everyone. And when we view the world in this way, no false information about another's identity can prevent or slow down our own spiritual growth.
