Article August 13, 2012 Issue

Stick to the true landmarks

Ann Grekel Hightower

Spiritual ideas manifest themselves in our lives in an infinite number of forms. Even biblical stories or sayings familiar since childhood take on new significance as one goes along through life. One of my favorite quotes from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy is a great example of this: “Gladness to leave the false landmarks and joy to see them disappear,—this disposition helps to precipitate the ultimate harmony” (p. 324). 

Our day-to-day experience is full of “false landmarks”—things like a physical injury, or hurt feelings. These disorient us spiritually if we steer by them, and if we let these things dominate our thinking they guide us to unprofitable destinations like bitterness, frustration, or depression. The only dependably true landmarks are those that come from Spirit, God, and show us life as God created it: always good, progressive, harmonious. When we learn to turn from the false landmarks and trust the true ones, our experience changes.

The first time I thought about these ideas of false and true landmarks, I was responsible for mentoring a sweet, young electrical engineer working in technical support in a large chemical plant. She was the only woman in her section, which consisted almost entirely of much older, very experienced men. She didn’t feel comfortable socializing with them and had so much to learn about her new responsibilities that she was struggling with every aspect of her work. I had seen a number of young women in similar situations leave the business—in fact, the reason I was mentoring her was that my company had recognized the problem and asked all the senior women for help. Her supervisor was very impatient with her, and when I tried to discuss some steps he might take to help her learn, he brushed me off. I told myself that I knew his type—the sort of man who didn’t believe women had the strength of character to work in a hard-hat environment. I was extremely resentful of his treatment of my friend and spent a number of wakeful nights worrying over what I could do to help.