Article May 7, 1938 Issue

Reliance on God

[Written Especially for Young People]

GLADYS MAY CARNEY

One day, a small boy made many attempts to ride his new bicycle. After carefully mounting he started down the driveway, and continued slowly out into the street. Sometimes the trip was made successfully. But at other times the attempt ended in a fall, and back he came to the starting point for another try. After one failure he said, with a wise nod, "When I know God is Love I don't fall off, but when I forget I fall." This little lad had early learned the lesson of reliance upon God. It is a lesson which cannot be learned too early, at home, in school, or wherever one may be.

Often in his schoolwork problems arise which seem difficult for the young student of Christian Science to solve. There are times when the help given in the classroom seems inadequate, and even a parent's superior knowledge fails to bring the right solution. But of one thing he may be sure: the problem is never beyond God's help. God is ever present and always available. God is the one infinite, all-knowing Mind, and as the student knows that this Mind is his intelligence, and that he reflects it, his problems are solved. Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 144), "If Mind is foremost and superior, let us rely upon Mind, which needs no cooperation from lower powers, even if these so-called powers are real."

Sometimes a belief of sickness confronts the young student. Perhaps when error presents itself he has been in the habit of immediately asking his parents or some other member of the family to take up the work. Or maybe there is some practitioner on whom he has been accustomed to rely. Yet, often, his turning in absolute trust to God, knowing He is right here, the only presence and power, and available to meet every need, is sufficient to bring him a quick healing. As the student turns directly to God for inspiration, his reliance on Him grows. "Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth" (ibid.,p. 203). Even when it seems right to obtain help from someone else, the student finds that he still has his own work to do in affirming the truth and denying the error. No matter what human footsteps are taken, he must know it is God, not person, who does the healing.

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