Article August 4, 1956 Issue

ON SEEING CHILDREN AS GOD'S REPRESENTATIVES

MARJORIE MACARTNEY

Every morning of the school year, parents of school-age children have the happy privilege of sending their children forth to express God. Should there be a parent who mistakenly feels that he is sending his child into uncertainty, Mary Baker Eddy has given him the answer. In the Christian Science textbook. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," parents will find the way to replace fear and anxiety with the assurance that all is well.

Vividly the author recalls with what misgivings she placed her little son in the car which was to take him miles away to his first day of kindergarten. The anxieties which tortured her thought were: "Will he be safe? Will he be frightened? Will he be liked? Will he be happy? If only I could be with him!" At last she saw the problem for what it was—a belief that the child could be separated from parental love and care. Jesus said to his listeners (Matt. 23:9) "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven."

The author saw that she needed to realize the ever-presence of God as Father-Mother. Therefore she set about to thrust out of the picture all beliefs of materiality. She studied Mrs. Eddy's definition of "children" on pages 582 and 583 of Science and Health. In this definition Mrs. Eddy describes what appear to human thought as human beings or material offspring as follows: "Sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation, whose better originals are God's thoughts, not in embryo, but in maturity; material suppositions of life, substance, and intelligence, opposed to the Science of being."

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ON SEEING CHILDREN AS GOD'S REPRESENTATIVES

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