Just as soon as John had learned to sit up on a chair by himself, he started going to a Christian Science Sunday School. There he learned to know God as Love, and he began to understand that very important First Commandment (Ex. 20:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and the beatitude (Matt. 5:5), "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth."

All the same, one day when he was about five, John seemed to forget. He started behaving very strangely. He shouted at his mother and stamped his feet. He would not do what she asked him to do, but did all the most dreadful things he could think of. His mother tried very hard to remember that only God's perfect, loving child was really there, and she reminded herself (for John no longer wanted to listen) of Mary Baker Eddy's words in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 192), "The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable."

Then Colin, a Sunday School friend, came over for the day. "Is it really true?" Colin asked John's mother in awe sometime later when she called the two boys for a walk. "Is he really boss here? He says he is."

John looked rather uncomfortable. His mother told them about the law by which boys and girls need their parents' or guardians' consent on many important questions until they reach a certain age. She explained a little the reasons for this law. But John quite obviously considered it most unfair.

They were comfortably halfway through their meal when his mother suddenly said to the boys: "You know, we were both quite wrong! And to think we call ourselves Christian Scientists! First John says he's the boss here and tries to act that way. Then I quote the law of the land to prove that I am! Who is really the only boss, everywhere, always?"

A broad grin broke through the sullen expression John had been carrying around all those days. "Why!" he cried triumphantly. "God's boss! 'Course He is!"

Then his mother told them a story. It was during the war, before John was born, that some children from a big city had been sent to their village for safety. Annie, aged thirteen, and three other little girls had come to live with John's mother in their small cottage. Annie could not remember her parents at all; big brothers and sisters had always done their best to look after her, but she had never known what it was to feel really loved and safe. And so she had come to believe that the only way to get along at all comfortably was to make sure of always being the boss. She was quite confident that she would soon be in charge of the situation in the little cottage where she and her three friends were billeted and was only waiting for the right opportunity to assert herself over their young foster mother.

Well, the opportunity had soon come. Annie stood there in the middle of the room, fists clenched, defiantly refusing obedience. But her foster mother did not seem to be listening; she had paused in her mending and was sitting looking into the open fire. Annie didn't know that she was really praying hard to be shown just what to say.

"Do you know, Annie," John's mother had begun slowly and quietly, "when my husband is at home—he's not the boss in this house." Annie had let out a gasp of amazement at such a frank admission.

"No," John's mother had smiled, guessing just what she was thinking, "I'm not the boss either; nor are even you youngsters going to be."

Then she went on to explain how in their little home they were learning to acknowledge only God as the Ruler, to do only what He wanted them to do; and how they were finding that in this way there was no need to order each other about am more, for God's will always blessed everyone concerned.

"Now, Annie," John's mother had told her, "you and I may find that we differ as to what is the right thing to do. I always want you to feel you can question a decision of mine. If I ask you to do something quickly and there's no chance to talk it over at the time, come along afterwards, and we'll discuss it. I'll respect you all the more for having obeyed some order with which you could not wholeheartedly agree. Always remember that I never want to assert my personal will over yours or to make you feel small. I only want God's will for His children to be done. On the other hand, your relatives, your school, and the government all hold me personally responsible for your well-being. Because of this it is only fair that if ever we cannot see eye to eye over something, you should be willing to support me in what I feel to be nearest right, since I am expected to bear the responsibility. I'm quite sure, though, that if we both really remember we are God's children and try to obey His will, we shall not often disagree."

And that was just how it had worked out. Annie learned the joy of pulling together with her foster mother and became a real help to her. Relieved of the feeling that she must fight and struggle to keep on top, her thin, old-looking face became rounded and gentle till it was really beautiful, and her formerly sharp tongue became the source of endless humor and quick-witted fun. A passage from Science and Health which particularly helped John's mother in dealing with Annie is on page 295. It runs: "God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them."

After John's mother had told the boys about Annie and the lovely times they all had together when they really listened to Love's directing, the boys told her stories from the Bible they had heard in Sunday School: how Samuel learned to listen to God in the temple; David, too, as a shepherd boy up in the mountains with the sheep; how Jesus had gone about his Father's business when he was only twelve. Then, when Samuel, David, and Jesus grew up, Mother pointed out, because they were so used to obeying God, they were able to do all sorts of wonderful things for others, freeing them from danger or sickness.

That led the boys to another very comforting discovery. Obedience is not just something children have to learn—grownups are really being obedient in one way or another all day long. If Mother did only what she felt inclined to do, there might never be any dinner ready when one came home hungry. And if the engine drivers did not obey the signals, what a muddle the trains would get into.

"So if we find ourselves getting into a muddle, feeling all cross or sick," wound up Mother, "it simply means we're not being obedient, like poor engine drivers. But we only have to turn again and listen to Love, and God will straighten out the muddle so that we shall feel well and happy once more."

The last thing that night John murmured sleepily and contentedly from under the bedclothes, "I am so glad God's the boss, aren't you Mummy?"