Editorial June 27, 1970 Issue

Finding One's Identity

William Milford Correll

It is a natural process for young people to search for identity, to begin to exercise the prerogative of decision, and to feel a necessity to assert their freedom from restriction. And it is probably a temptation for adults to wish to extend the time of control or supervision. Is there an inevitable conflict involved here? Not if all parties are seeking God's direction and working with the idea that there is one Mind, one God.

Finding one's identity is very scientific, healthful, and necessary. Knowing what to look for and where and how to find it is often open to misinterpretation and misdirection. A definite idea of what constitutes identity is a helpful starting point. Mrs. Eddy says: "Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not in matter."^{Science and Health, p. 477;}

It is a common mistake to look to the body in search of identity, and the growing adolescent seems very conscious of the body and of the human self. The human ego, manifested in a developing material body, and the spiritual sense of man, represented by the higher sentiments and ideals, are like the tares and wheat that seem to grow side by side. Any growing process involves patience, and the direction thought takes often depends upon the relative emphasis placed on the material or spiritual side. Here is where training, example, the atmosphere of the home, has much to do with the child's direction of development.

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