True Relationship

HELEN S. SHILLING

To one who seems to be confused or unhappy because of discordant human relationships, Christian Science offers a happy solution and adjustment. If sorrow, frustration, or disappointment has resulted from lack of happy human relationship, one can begin to establish in his consciousness the truth of man's relationship to God. It is never too soon or too late to realize the spiritual facts of being.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes (p. 332), "Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation." And again, in "Miscellaneous Writings," she says (p. 151), "God is our Father and our Mother, our Minister and the great Physician: He is man's only real relative on earth and in heaven."

One who earnestly endeavors to realize man's eternal oneness with God, good, and the indestructibility of this relationship, soon finds his human relationships purified and strengthened. He finds himself joyously realizing true friendship in becoming a better friend himself. In legitimate human companionship, kindred tastes and interests are uplifted and purified for mutual good. Selfishness and personal monopoly cannot enter in because they do not reflect God, divine Principle, upon which all true and satisfying relationship is based.

By turning thought first to Principle instead of person, one finds his sense of spiritual love growing stronger, more expansive and impersonal. He begins to see that God governs and directs all His ideas for His glory and their benefit, because He is ever-present Love, whose nature is to bless.

It is a truism that like attracts like, and in spirituality alone is unity found. True unity can never be established in matter or on a material basis. When one is confronted with a specific problem in human relationship, it is always wise and necessary to reject personal feelings and leave the field to God. This is done by turning to the one Mind for guidance and direction, and by rooting out of one's consciousness selfishness, human will, envy, jealousy, hate, self-love, fear, self-pity, and self-condemnation. The right solution can then be clearly seen as the truth unfolds to the receptive thought, bringing peace and good to all concerned.

Unselfish affection liberates from a narrow, possessive sense. Human will can neither bind nor separate, because God is All—all that really exists is included in Mind, God. Therefore, by realizing our unity with God we are enabled to realize spiritual unity with all His children, and the impossibility of separation from any good. The sense of separation from good is false, unreal.

It is well sometimes to remind ourselves that all we love in others is the goodness that each one reflects, and that this unity with good is to be cherished. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 356), "There is neither a present nor an eternal copartnership between error and Truth, between flesh and Spirit."

We can be very patient and compassionate toward those who seem not yet willing or ready to follow in the pathway of Christian Science. Each one has the freedom of choice, and we can leave our brother to Love's care, knowing that he has his lessons to learn and we have ours, and that we shall learn them in the way that is best for each one of us. Only through actual realization of the truth do we learn what we need to know.

A higher sense of relationship begins to unfold as we learn that God and man are inseparable, and that man reflects God's attributes or qualities, such as love, goodness, purity, peace, joy, and so on. As one realizes that in his true selfhood he has all these qualities by reflection, he becomes less and less dependent upon persons, but increasingly dependent upon the divine source of all good. He ceases to depend on a personal sense of friendship, knowing that whatever is right for him to experience and enjoy will unfold naturally as a result of spiritual understanding.

We should love and respect each individual expression of good. Right now we can know that in reality we are free from false relationships, free from false attractions, entanglements, and fears. Our real selfhood is safe and secure as Love's reflection, receptive and responsive to good, loyal to Principle, obedient to Truth. Our spiritual selfhood is perfect. Right desire and its fulfillment give us the only true and abiding satisfaction.

True relationship necessarily partakes of the permanence and stability of Mind, because it is governed by Mind; and the influence of good is the only influence there is. By unselfing the problem of relationship we see, though perhaps faintly at first, what Paul meant when he said, in the eighth chapter of his epistle to the Romans, "Neither death, nor life, ... nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"The song of Christian Science"

August 14, 1937

Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit