Article August 10, 2015 Issue

Hello, good thoughts! Goodbye, bad thoughts!

Shannon Naylor

When I was a little kid, I sometimes had nightmares so scary that I’d wake up in the middle of the night. When this happened, I’d think back to some helpful things I was learning in Sunday School.

We had learned to “stand porter at the door of thought” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 392). We learned to let in only thoughts that were good and came from God. Curled up in my bed after a nightmare, I remembered that I could “close the door” on scary thoughts and welcome in good and loving thoughts from God.

I had also learned in Sunday School that fear could be described as F.E.A.R.—False Evidence Appearing Real, which meant that even if it felt real, it wasn’t. Fear doesn’t come from God! The fear I felt was a big lie. It was just as much of a lie as someone telling me that ice cream came from cold cows!

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