Many years ago, when I got my first teaching job, I joined the nearest Christian Science church. Immediately, I was assigned to the nursery, where babies and children too young for Sunday School are cared for. I had only been there a little while when a mom and dad brought in a yelling boy of about two. He clearly didn’t want to be there, and his parents were embarrassed. I took the little boy aside, knelt down, and looked him in the eye. I calmly and tenderly said, “I am not impressed. You can yell all you like, but I am not impressed. That’s because I see you as God’s beautiful, joyful child. That’s what impresses me.”
I kept talking to him like this, and after a while he calmed down. His mom and dad left to go to church. The little boy and I had a wonderful hour together, and when his parents came to pick him up, they were very happy. From that time on, he came to the nursery joyfully and willingly.
Recently, I had some chores to do, and I overdid it. When I finally stopped to rest, I was aching all over. The encounter I just related occurred to me, and I said out loud, “I am not impressed. What I just did was helpful and useful. What does impress me is the idea that spiritually, I am God’s beloved child.” In a few minutes, the muscles stopped aching.
