Article November 20, 1915 Issue

Constructive Correction

JANE GRAVES MONSARRAT

In Science and Health (p. 62) Mrs. Eddy says: "The entire education of children should be such as to form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law, with which the child can meet and master the belief in so-called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease. If parents create in their babes a desire for incessant amusement, to be always fed, rocked, tossed, or talked to, those parents should not, in after years, complain of their children's fretfulness or frivolity, which the parents themselves have occasioned."

When one of my children was only a few days old it was noticed that she did not seem to like to have her little bonnet fastened on. I mentioned this to the nurse, who replied, "It is not too early to begin to know the truth for this baby, and not make laws for her which will only hamper her in her mental and spiritual development." She then went on to explain that if we were constantly alert to destroy every inharmonious expression by declaring its falsity and dwelling emphatically on the reverse of error, the child could be freed from the first appearances of "self-will, self-justification, and self-love," against which Mrs. Eddy warns us on page 242 of Science and Health.

One sometimes hears a parent remark, "John is cross today," or say directly to him, "You obstinate child!" thereby establishing the very condition which one wants the child to overcome. The first step in this method of constructive correction is to know and affirm the truth of being, thus lifting one's own thought up to the recognition of the divine fatherhood and motherhood. When this point is firmly established the child will readily see why it is not natural to be cross, untruthful, or stubborn, since God can express only His perfection in the complete harmony of truth, in purity, gentleness, patience. A happy smile will thus come to the little one, driving away tears, in recognition that God's child is always sunny and good, because those are God-given qualities and he has a right to them; that the opposite error is no part of him and cannot make him a channel to express anything unlike perfection. The true method helps us over many rough places, and the truth clung to and dwelt on cannot fail ultimately to bring the permanent and harmonious results which we desire.

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