Article May 3, 1930 Issue

Harmony

RUTH INGRAHAM

Generally , when children are playing together, no one is afraid that the others will harm him or treat him unkindly. Each one has such a friendly feeling for all the others that he usually wants the same good for each that he would like for himself. He has no thought of harming anyone else, and he knows nobody else would think of harming him. So there is harmony.

Then, perhaps, all at once there seems to be inharmony. What has happened? Somebody, maybe quite unintentionally, has run against somebody else and pushed him down, and there is a bumped head. And the one whose head is bumped feels angry about it, and blames the one who did the pushing; and that one's feelings are hurt because he knows he didn't mean to, and soon cross words are being spoken. What is the matter; do you know? Ah, two strangers have come in and are making the trouble, two harmful strangers, who never should be found among God's happy children. The name of one is self-pity, and the name of the other is self-justification. Where are they? You cannot see them, for they are thoughts, wrong thoughts which have slipped in. Nobody can see the thoughts that come and go, but we know what they are by the way they make us speak and act. The child who is believing that he is hurt does not know that his trouble comes largely from this self-pity thought which has suddenly popped into his consciousness. It is self-pity that is shedding those tears, and speaking those angry words. And how about the other stranger? It is the self-justification thought that is crossly contradicting what his playfellow is saying, and is making a quarrel in place of a happy time—helping to make harm instead of harmony.

And the rest of the children—what are they doing? Are they taking sides with these two error thoughts? Or are they remembering the beatitude, "Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God"? If some child present is wise enough to hold fast to this beautiful thought, there may soon be a wonderful change. Self-justification will give way to humility, which says, "I am sorry I pushed you down; I was careless, please forgive me." And self-pity will melt before forgiveness, which says, "I know you didn't mean to, and it didn't hurt me enough to cry about, anyway." Then the trouble is over, and there is harmony again.

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