"Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept. Patience must 'have her perfect work,'" writes Mary Baker Eddy on page 454 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." A dictionary defines "patience" in part as "forbearance." We may all sometimes have wished in our daily life and contact with other people that we could express more patience, more forbearance with their faults and shortcomings. Christian Science, which is a religion of love, teaches us to wait patiently on God—to let God's will be done in us so that His purpose and plan, which are always good, may be revealed to us.

When we serve God and obey His will we may rejoice in patient waiting, expecting all good to come into our lives. In the fortieth Psalm we read (verse 1), "I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry." What a privilege to know that we have a loving Father-Mother who provides for man all that makes for his spiritual perfection. Thus He meets our needs, even before we ask Him.

Christian Science is a practical religion, for it gives us the tools with which to work out our own salvation. Among these tools is individual, patient, prayerful study each day of the Bible and Science and Health. The reward for perseverance and for honest and sincere work in this direction is spiritual understanding, the understanding that "now are we the sons of God" (I John 3:2). Now are we God's beloved children, His sons and daughters, reflecting all good. As we are willing to work and to wait patiently for the unfoldment of good in consciousness, we shall experience happiness and harmony in all we undertake.

On page 247 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" Mrs. Eddy writes, "The little that I have accomplished has all been done through love,—self-forgetful, patient, unfaltering tenderness." Our Leader waited patiently on God to show her what to do. What an example she has set us! We should in patience and assurance also wait for divine Love to guide and direct us in all things; and when direction is given, we should follow without hesitation.

It does not matter where we are, or where our work lies, whether in the office, in the factory, in the kitchen, or in the workshop—our real work is to bear witness to the truth, to reflect God, to see only good as real, and to recognize only the man God made in His image and likeness. Reflecting good to all, we are fulfilling our mission and hastening the coming of that perfect day when all the world shall acknowledge the Science of Christianity.

The love that reflects God, divine Love, stands untouched by selfish desires and is pure and perfect, but that human emotion which is sometimes called love is as far from this reflected quality as darkness is from light. Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health, p. 4), "What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds."

Many of us have seen a rosebud in a garden and thought, "How wonderful it will look when it unfolds its beautiful petals in full bloom!" But to see the full-blown rose, we have had to wait patiently for unfoldment to take place, and this unfoldment was a quiet and gradual process. So it is with our spiritual progress, which is the unfoldment in consciousness of the perfect idea of being. It is the putting off of the old material concept, calling itself mortal man, and putting on, or becoming conscious of, our true selfhood as immortal— embodying all the ideas of God, good.

The children of Israel, wandering in the desert, had to learn patience and obedience—to wait on God and trust Him to direct and guide them into the promised land. Like the children of Israel, have we not all sometimes, in our passage from sense to Soul, experienced desert wanderings? Have we not been filled with doubts and fears as to the outcome of our undertakings, until we were ready to let God guide us and His will be done with us?

The writer felt a great need of patience in her work as a caretaker in a big building, where she daily came in contact with all kinds of people who had different opinions, wills, and ways. Since she felt that she lacked this patience, and that without it she could not carry on the work in the building, she decided to go to a Christian Science practitioner for help. The practitioner listened patiently and compassionately to all she had to tell her. Then with a smile she quietly reminded the writer that she was God's beloved child and that God had bestowed all good upon her. She told the writer that she must use patience because of that knowledge. The practitioner then quoted the passage from Science and Health given at the beginning of this article. The truth spoken by that loving and patient practitioner many years ago has never been forgotten, for it completely changed the writer's outlook. She learned that as the child of God she was in possession of all she needed of good eternally and could lack nothing.

Let us never forget that God, good, is always with us, always imparting the right ideas wherewith we may meet and fulfill our obligations. Let us remember that the good we have need of every day must often come through patient waiting as well as reliance on God. These comforting words are found in one of our beautiful hymns in the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 263):

Tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.—Romans 5:3-5.