Have you ever been confronted by an aggressive bully of some sort? At such a moment, it’s tempting to feel helpless and afraid. But rather than put up with the bully’s torment, you have a choice. You can defend yourself. As scary as this sounds, it’s really the only way to put a stop to the bully’s abuse.
This is how I have come to view the directive Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of Christian Science, gives us in the Manual of The Mother Church when she states, “It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion …” (p. 42).
We know from the first chapter of the Bible that God made both the heaven and the earth, and He pronounced His creation “very good” (see Genesis 1:31). Christian Science teaches that a mental suggestion is any belief contrary to the absolute allness and goodness of God and His creation. Unlike the bully who speaks his insults aloud, aggressive mental suggestion comes unseen and silent, in the guise of our own thinking. Symptoms of illness, inharmony in a relationship, or any situation that seems chaotic or hopeless, are forms of aggressive mental suggestion, a claim that God is not in control, that something evil is going on. These less-than-good ideas often come in the form of a thought such as “I am sick,” “I am tired,” “I am frustrated” (or unhappy, poor, worthless, angry).
