Article May 1, 2000 Issue

who's to blame?

How I found the proverbial needle in a haystack

By Jayne W. Rattman

We lived near the ocean, so a trip to the beach on a summer's day was a frequent event. One extremely hot afternoon, we took our chairs down to the water's edge to sit and enjoy the cool sea breeze. Eventually the children coaxed me to join them in the water. I removed my watch and ring and slipped the ring through the watch strap, hanging it over the arm of the chair. As we swam and played in the water, the tide gradually came in. The children ran up the beach several times to move my chair out of the water and onto the sand. When I finally came out of the water an hour later, I found that the watch was where I had left it, but the ring had disappeared. The ring, though not of great monetary value, held great sentimental value for me, as it had belonged to my grandmother.

I first blamed the children for not seeing what had happened, and then blamed myself for being so careless. I then asked the lifeguard if anyone had found a ring and turned it in to him. He laughed and wished me luck. Now I added a third culprit to my "blame list"—the lifeguard, because of his lack of sympathy.

Suddenly a red flag went up in my thinking: "Change your thought!" I was able to calm down and then view this as an opportunity to prove God's loving care in any situation. This passage from Science and Health came to me: "A mental state of self-condemnation and guilt or a faltering and doubting trust in Truth are unsuitable conditions for healing the sick" (p. 455). Although I was not sick, I knew I was entertaining a sick thought—one of condemnation.

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