Article August 21, 1976 Issue

Still Waters of Prayer

EVELYN D. BERTOLET

"When in deep water—keep your mouth closed." There is wisdom in this humorous advice. Mortals are prone to react to challenges with discussion or rumination. In family problems, church problems, business problems, even in times of national crisis, more time is often given to "street corner" discussion of the ordeal itself than to prayer and spiritual reasoning.

The beloved twenty-third Psalm includes the statement, "He leadeth me beside the still waters."^{Ps. 23:2;} How often do we, when faced with scenes of angry strife or swirling currents of mortal thought, take time to find "the still waters" of prayer for our needed inspiration? Instead of invoking mental quiet, do we sometimes try to work in the middle of the stream of disturbing human evidence, frightening mortal laws, and perverse human behavior? At such times we need the guidance of divine Mind to lead us to safe waters of clear, scientific thought, or we may find ourselves resorting to anger or stubborn human will instead of to spiritually based inspiration.

Christian Science teaches us to turn to God, divine Mind, for every answer and to trust His infinite wisdom with our need for protection or guidance. The answers we need to immediately solve a problem come to us through thought, so one can easily see the necessity of stillness in order to be receptive to Mind's right ideas. Mrs. Eddy tells us: "In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses."^{Science and Health, p. 15;}