Articles

The Bible tells us that God is Spirit and perfect and that man (everyone) is made in God’s image and likeness. Jesus said, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” ( Matthew 5:48 ).

There was a time when I could not find a good job. I felt I knew exactly what the perfect job would be, but I was unable to get it.

Over the years I have loved pondering the following verse from the Bible: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” ( James 1:17 ). This verse describes so beautifully God’s unchanging, eternal love, which is impartially poured over all His creation.

My husband and I purchased a ceramic tile while traveling as newlyweds in the Western United States and delighted in these lines from a poem inscribed on it: “Now you will feel no rain, as each will be a shelter for the other. ” Over the years, in our several homes, I have read that tile every day and am reminded how marriage is a protection and a blessing to both partners amid life’s many challenges.

When we’re overwhelmed by many demands, it might feel as though there isn’t enough of God, or good, to go around. Or it might seem as if some people receive more of God’s love than others.

As a Christian Science chaplain in the United States Army, I was in the country of Jordan, ministering to soldiers in my unit. Several asked if I would baptize them in the Jordan River, where the Bible says Jesus was baptized.

Life can be challenging. Sometimes we may feel we’d like an army to help us fight our battles.

Gratitude overflows to my grandparents and an aunt who accepted Christian Science as their way of life soon after Mary Baker Eddy founded The Church of Christ, Scientist. My relatives were present when Mrs.

Paul, encouraging the newly minted Christians at Thessalonica, wrote, “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness” ( I Thessalonians 5:5 ). And to the Ephesians he wrote, “Walk as children of light” ( Ephesians 5:8 ).

One summer, when a friend and I were taking a vacation together, it became clear that we had completely different views and goals—so different that things she said and did hurt and annoyed me. In retrospect these differences were trivial, as I no longer even remember what they were.