When I was a little girl, my mom and dad taught me a much-loved bedtime prayer, and we recited it together every night throughout my childhood. It goes like this:
Father-Mother God,
Loving me,—
Guard me when I sleep;
Guide my little feet
Up to Thee. (Poems, p. 69)
The author of the prayer is Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. From childhood she had a deep love for God and the Bible, and many times throughout her writings she uses both Father and Mother to describe the nature of God. In her seminal work, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, she writes, “Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation” (p. 332).
