Article October 9, 1976 Issue

Distinguishing between the maternal and the material

God's Motherhood and "Mom"

SYLVIA DICK KARAS

What does an understanding of God's motherhood do for "mom," as she is popularly known in America? It helps her to support a child's identity instead of manipulating it. God originates, shapes, unfolds, and places. Relying on this, we don't have to mold, push, pressure, or nag. However, if you've ever found yourself pacing the floor in an agonizing effort to yield your child to God's will— feeling, as the father of the epileptic boy said to Christ Jesus, "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief" Mark 9:24; —it helps to go back and see where the mistake began.

Where does parental worry come from? It stems from the belief that man is a mortal, creating other mortals. It often comes to a mother in that incredible moment at a child's birth when the woman is tempted to break the first commandment and think she did it! "How important my baby's helplessness makes me," mortal mind tempts us to think, inviting us to give ourselves undue credit and snuggle down to play god to an infant's helplessness. But as God's Word in the Bible directs us, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." Ex. 20:3;

No, there's no easy manual to tell you how to let God show you. No one tells you that learning to make room for a new identity can require just as much prayerful effort as learning to feed and care for it. But Mrs. Eddy's writings are full of substantial counsel. She knew, and she starts early. Don't crowd your unborn baby with the pressure of your desires, physical or mental. "The foetus must be kept mentally pure and the period of gestation have the sanctity of virginity," Science and Health, p. 62; she writes.

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