The Bible Speaks to You September 3, 1966 Issue

[The above is an abbreviated, postproduction text of the program released for broadcast the week of August 26—September I in the radio series, "The Bible Speaks to You." Heard internationally over approximately 1,000 stations, the weekly programs are prepared and produced by the Christian Science Committee on Publication, 107 Falmouth Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02115.]

RADIO PROGRAM NO. 230 - Learning to Cope with Academic Pressure

Questioner: I recently heard of a mother who took her three-and-a-half-year-old for a preliminary interview before enrolling him in nursery school for the following ear. After the interview she asked the nursery school director in all seriousness, "Do you think he'll be college material?" This has an element of humor in it, but doesn't it illustrate the concern of many parents today over academic pressure?
Speaker: Yes. And it also illustrates the contagious nature of pressure. People are apt to become afraid or feel under pressure because that's what everybody else is feeling, It also indicates the tragic fear of limitation and lack that underlies this whole spectrum of pressure. Granted there is heavy demand on students today. But instead of being engulfed by everybody else's fears of inadequacy, it's important for the student to take stock of himself.
Questioner: Do you mean, take stock of how he spends his time, how well organized he is, and that sort of thing?
Speaker: That's part of it, but I believe there's a great deal more to it. He should ask himself if he gives any thought at all to his spiritual relation to God, to his God-given nature and capacities.
Questioner: I can see how thinking about his relation to God might give him some assurance and self-confidence, but how practical is this? That's not going to reduce the work load.
Speaker: Well, even the element of gaining assurance and self-confidence is important. Granted that thinking of his relation to God isn't going to reduce the amount of work he has to accomplish, what he has to do is to make the most efficient use of his time that he can. And this gets down to a matter of using his aids more efficiently.

For instance, students in engineering schools will learn to use slide rules; students in business colleges will learn to use calculators, adding machines, and even computers in some of the more advanced courses in order that they can learn to make more productive use of their time.

I'd like to ask them: how about learning more of their God-given capacities and using them as aids to more efficient use of time?
Questioner: Can you be more specific about these God-given capacities that a person has?
Speaker: In Paul's letter to the Philippians he says (4:19). "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."