A Lesson from Dusting the Stairs

[Written Especially for Children]

JULIA M. JOHNSTON

On page 51 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says: "If you make clear to the child's thought the right motives for action, and cause him to love them, they will lead him aright." This sentence recalls to the writer's thought how a child was once thus taught by her mother.

It was house-cleaning time and everyone was busy. The maids were wiping down the walls in the long hall, mother was overseeing the work, and Elizabeth was at the top of the stairway with a dust cloth in her hand. Mother knew that a Christian Science child should understand how to help make a home lovely and to help others to keep it so. This was the reason why Elizabeth had been given the task of wiping down the hall stairs. There were two balusters on every step, and there were a great many steps.

Elizabeth could hear the man beating a carpet out in the yard; and the sun was pouring in through the open door. She sat down on one of the steps and wished that she could go outside and play. Just then mother came through the hall and Elizabeth, talking to herself, but loud enough for mother to hear, said, "If I had a little girl I would never make her dust down the front hall stairs." Then she waited to see what would happen. In a few moments mother came up to where she was sitting and said: "Little girl, don't you see what a beautiful thing you have to do? You have a chance to use some lovely gifts from God if you wipe down the stairs nicely. These gifts are helpfulness, order, cleanliness, obedience, and joy. Using God's gifts all the time is the way to be a true Christian Scientist."

Elizabeth was very thoughtful for a few moments. She was very sure that it would be a joy to use something God had given her, and she really did want to be the right kind of Christian Scientist more than anything else. Soon she set to work, and oh, how carefully she polished every baluster and wiped in every corner! When the bottom of the stairs was reached mother said that the work was nicely done. Bubbling over with joy, Elizabeth ran out to play.

Later in the day, as the little girl and her mother sat under the trees having one of their lovely talks together, mother said: "You see, don't you, dear, that using what God gives you is the best way to be happy and to help others to be happy too. By doing your part we all have had a little time to play, too, this afternoon. Darling, it does not matter so much what you are doing, if it is good, as what you are doing it with. If you are always using God's gifts, then everything you do will be a lovely experience."

The little girl replied that she understood and then thoughtfully asked, "Mother, if I had obeyed you with my hands, but had not wanted to inside of me, would I have been obedient?" "No, dear," was the quick answer, "but I knew that you really wanted to." Mother always understood.

Elizabeth was understanding Christian Science better, too, because she saw that all she had of it was what she lived even when nobody was watching her. So she decided right then and there to find out more of the gifts God had given her, and to use them as much of the time as ever she could, in everything she did. This little girl was learning the truth which in later years she found so beautifully expressed in I Corinthians 12:1: "Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant."

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A Lesson from Dusting the Stairs

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