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Awake to every opportunity
There’s a juvenile detention center an hour from me that I’ve visited every few months for several years to do institutional committee work through my Christian Science branch church. My motive in visiting these young people is to share Christian Science with them and have an open discussion, not to teach or preach.
On a recent Friday, while driving home from a shift at my local Christian Science Reading Room, I was planning to stop by the center, but all I could think about was getting comfortable and staying home for the evening—not making the one-hour drive back into town.
I recognized that this tempting thought of being too tired to participate in a spiritually motivated activity was not from God, but was a suggestion from mortal mind. I prayed to see the Truth and knew, during the holiday season especially, it was right for me to visit the facility.
When I walked in, the guard jokingly asked if anyone wanted to visit with the “church lady.” After some light laughter from the young men, I asked if anyone wanted a prayer. One by one, seven people gathered around the small table, where I was sitting. This facility is meant for temporary placement, so I meet new people every time I visit.
The conversation started with a discussion of who God is, as explained by Mary Baker Eddy in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. God is Love, Truth, Life, Principle, Spirit, Soul, and Mind (see p. 587 ).
None of these young men had ever heard these ideas, so imagine their surprise when I said that each and every one of them reflected spiritual qualities from God. I started to see their expressions soften.
We discussed their friends and the people in their lives who didn’t always help them strive for the highest good, but instead got them into trouble. They acknowledged that these people were not always positive influences in their lives.
As we continued to talk, I remembered an analogy Mrs. Eddy used in her writings. Although I summarized it at the time, the passage reads as follows: “If my friends are going to Europe, while I am en route for California, we are not journeying together. We have separate time-tables to consult, different routes to pursue. … if my friends pursue my course, we have the same railroad guides, and our mutual interests are identical; or, if I take up their line of travel, they help me on, and our companionship may continue” (Science and Health, p. 21 ). Without much explanation from me, I started to see their faces light up with this truth.
Before it was time for me to leave, we briefly discussed the power of gratitude. One by one, the young men promised to begin spending one minute a day expressing gratitude for what they had. All of them appeared eager to practice this assignment.
Now my heart is filled with gratitude as I’m learning to see through “error,” mortal mind’s suggestions, right away, no matter what guise it may be wearing. There’s no way I could ever be too tired or too busy to follow the Christ!
—Becky Barrett-Alford, Austin, Texas, US