When a mother turns to God in prayer for guidance and proper judgment, her role as a comforter and an educator becomes progressively supportive. She finds it liberating to place her child's welfare above fears, personal attachments, and personal plans. Her reliance on divine Spirit also frees her child from the effects of fear and opens the way for Christly affection to influence and bless them both.

This mother is not the one about whom Mrs. Eddy writes: "If a child is exposed to contagion or infection, the mother is frightened and says, 'My child will be sick.' The law of mortal mind and her own fears govern her child more than the child's mind governs itself, and they produce the very results which might have been prevented through the opposite understanding. Then it is believed that exposure to the contagion wrought the mischief." ^{Science and Health, p. 154;}

The mother who comforts her child "through the opposite understanding"—her awareness of the spiritual perfection and unity of God and man—realizes the preventive power of divine Truth and trusts it. She supports her child's demonstration of true selfhood the best she can. She recognizes this selfhood to be a spiritual entity in God's wholly spiritual creation instead of a physical personality subject to happenstance and finite inheritances of the flesh. She aligns her care for her child with an understanding of God as Principle and follows His leadings. Her maternal affection, therefore, becomes unchanging in its stability and purpose. It has a lasting influence for good on the child as well as on herself.

In Science and Health, against the marginal heading "Permanent affection," Mrs. Eddy writes: "A mother's affection cannot be weaned from her child, because the mother-love includes purity and constancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal affection lives on under whatever difficulties." ^{ibid., p. 60;}

The biblical account of the woman of Shunem is an ideal illustration of scientific motherly conduct in what appeared to be a hopeless situation. The difficulty to be healed was a lifeless child. The woman knew that Elisha was a holy man of God, and she went to him to restore her son.

To the inquiry of Elisha's servant, "Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child?" the Shunammite mother replied, "It is well." ^{II Kings 4:26;} Her conduct exemplified the affirmative prayer of true motherhood. She was expressing the immortal qualities of purity and constancy essential to mother love.

The Shunammite mother's affection for her son that led her to declare "It is well" couldn't be weaned from her child through fear or sympathy with physical laws. Even the evidence of death didn't weaken her supportive affection. As she placed her child on Elisha's bed and shut the door to the room she had prepared in her home for the prophet, her trust in the power of God and in the prayers of the "holy man of God" must have first healed her own fears. Surely the Christly qualities of purity and constancy had strengthened her assurance of the child's indestructible, eternal life before she called on Elisha. Her steadfast trust in God's omnipotence was a model of faith, as defined in the book of Hebrews, "the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." ^{Heb. 11:1;}

Mrs. Eddy cherished the support of her mother, Abigail Ambrose Baker. Mrs. Baker's sustaining influence must have contributed to Mrs. Eddy's understanding of motherly love. Her writings express a higher sense of mother love than the world generally knows. They enrich the mother-child relationship, freeing it from the penury of fear and personal dependence.

When Mrs. Eddy's young son was taken from her because of her invalidism and her dependence on others, she experienced a mother's worries and yearnings. She later learned from spiritual insight that Deity is Father-Mother God—the tender, always-caring, divinely supportive Parent of all. The overcoming of a limited sense of mother love accompanied the task of spiritually nurturing those, in many parts of the world, who sought and would seek Truth through the revelation of Christian Science.

In her earlier years, disturbed by some of the stern theological teachings of her day, Mrs. Eddy became ill with a fever. In retrospect, she tenderly spoke of her mother: "My mother, as she bathed my burning temples, bade me lean on God's love, which would give me rest, if I went to Him in prayer, as I was wont to do, seeking His guidance. I prayed; and a soft glow of ineffable joy came over me. The fever was gone, and I rose and dressed myself, in a normal condition of health. Mother saw this, and was glad." ^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 13;}

During a flu epidemic a Christian Science practitioner was called by a mother whose little boy had become ill with a fever. The mother said she was afraid her own fear would harm her child. She referred to Mrs. Eddy's statement—the first from Science and Health quoted in this article—as a basis for her concern.

The practitioner spoke about the Shunammite mother's supportive assurance and called attention to the second reference from Science and Health quoted above. The difference in motherly behavior and its effects was easily seen by comparing the two statements. It was like laying a straight stick beside a crooked one. Immediately the mother was relieved. She saw that the first statement was corrective—it showed her what not to do if she wanted to help her child. When she called the practitioner later, she had been healed of fear. The mother said she had realized her supportive role and had been helped to see that Love, not fear, was real and in control. Her little boy was better. In the morning she reported with much gratitude that her child was eating and playing normally.

How comforting it is for mothers to know that affection reflecting divine Love gives them mastery over motherly concerns that are based on fear. Mothers can be strengthened by the biblical affirmation of their God-derived ability to overcome the false prophets of this world. "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." ^{I John 4:4.}

Derived from and supported by divine Principle and Love, maternal affection and its influence for good live on. They sustain mother and child, enabling a mother to say, "It is well," and know it.