School-Day Problems

MARGUERITE NEWHALL PHALEN

OUT of my golden school-day experiences, one which always made a deep impression upon me had to do with memory gems. It was the duty of each member of our class to find, and also to learn, a helpful quotation once a week. My difficulty lay in finding appropriate sayings, and many times I spent hours poring over books and magazines in a fruitless search for memory gems.

Then one day when I was particularly discouraged over a memory gem hunt, mother very lovingly pointed out to me that Christian Science, to which I turned for help in the big problems, could be just as valuable to me in solving this little problem. She called my attention to the passage on page 88 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where Mrs. Eddy says, "Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal;" and she explained to me that since ideas are spiritual, they must be of God; and since they are of God, they must be everywhere.

As I thought it all over, alone, I soon saw for myself just what mother wanted me to see — that there never could be any lack of ideas, and since there never could be any lack of ideas, there never could be any lack of anything which was good, helpful, and right. In other words, there could be no lack of memory gems! And when I realized this, I became very happy. Before, I had always feared that I should not be able to do this share of my class work. Now my thinking was changed. I was willing to put everything in God's hand and to let Him guide me. You see, I had not yet found any memory gems, but I had lost my fear about not finding them; and that made me very grateful. Later, on the same day, I picked up the Christian Science Hymnal, and glancing through the pages I discovered what had been there all the time — a wealth of memory gems!

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