We all should consider ourselves as having children to care for. Even singles, newlyweds, and grandparents have an opportunity to bring to children an important measure of love and appreciation. Children in society urgently need the special contribution students of Christian Science can make to their welfare.

A brief scan of surfacing public attitudes toward children awakens us to the fact that their welfare is endangered. Recent surveys show that a large majority of mothers, were they given the opportunity to choose again, would not have children. A rash of films in recent years has portrayed children as demonically possessed. Child abuse and neglect and an increasing suicide rate for young people—all point clearly to great need for protecting children and bringing healing to society's attitude toward them.

Parents will love their children in the degree they understand them. And a genuine understanding will come as human thought begins to awake to a child's true spiritual nature. The child of God's creating is whole and pure. He expresses goodness, maturity, joy, and lovableness. Even in the midst of opposing evidence, the child's true nature remains unchanged. As the parent is sufficiently spiritually-minded, he will recognize authentic spiritual characteristics, and the child's activity will begin to match the parent's vision.

Mrs. Eddy envisioned children as being spiritual and perfect. In Science and Health she begins her definition of "children": "The spiritual thoughts and representatives of Life, Truth, and Love."  ^{Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 582} There is healing power in this view. As we embrace it, we bring a protecting and purifying quality not only to our own children but to those throughout society. Such a view begins to lift society's concept of children from limited and false impressions into spiritually enlightened understanding.

Mrs. Eddy's definition also depicts the way children are all too often regarded from a material point of view: "Sensual and mortal beliefs; ... material suppositions of life, substance, and intelligence, opposed to the Science of being."  ^{ibid., p. 583;} This mortal view that would seek predominance in both parents' and society's thought must yield to the inspired conviction that, in reality, God is the one Parent. That He is the eternal Father-Mother of each spiritual idea. That He alone sustains the perfection of His child and He does so without failure. Each of us can begin to realize that society's children are precious to it and that we stand in the position of guardians for their proper development and progress. We have an obligation to lift mortal thought out of its ignorant and abusive concepts about individuals who in their true natures are representatives of Love. Frustration, anger, and disappointment lose their supposed validity when we respond to divine Love and its creation rather than reacting to mortal beliefs.

The child of Love's creating is not a mortal personality with developing character traits that are both good and bad. Our obligation is not to love disobedience, rebellion, or any other mortal belief about children. Our opportunity is to cherish spiritual facts regarding their true nature. The child raised in a home where Christian Science is practiced is uniquely privileged. Parents who are genuinely practicing this Science are providing for children the best kind of care they can receive. Of the many needs of children, perhaps their right to good health care ranks among the strongest. Parents caring for their children through spiritual means alone are confronted with clear-cut demands. Proper care requires daily prayer. It requires persistent and consistent study and then specific application of spiritual ideas to the needs of children.

While a parent who is a Christian Scientist would, for instance, seek exemption from various medical requirements such as immunization, that parent is actually requesting permission to give the child regular and full protection on an exclusively spiritual basis. There is no safer nor more certain protection for the child than Christian Science treatment. But the parent then has a definite obligation to provide this specific care through prayer.

The support given a child through prayer includes thoughtful and intelligent affirmations of his true spiritual identity. The parent should reach a strong conviction that God's child is forever secure in Love's care. That the child's only purpose is to glorify divine Love and that this relationship to God is inviolable. The parent will also intelligently deny mortal beliefs about children—specifically those claiming prominence in human thought, such as accident, contagion, or false attractions.

Christ Jesus cared for children, healing them of their discords. He loved children and recognized their promise. "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven,"  ^{Matt. 19:14.} he said.

Parents who are Christian Scientists have strong reason to cherish their children. They are beginning to understand their precious spiritual nature, and for this reason they faithfully provide them with regular prayerful support. It is this love that impels these parents to give children this better care, even though it demands much more of the parent. Such care is an example for society of the highest guardianship of a child's welfare.

Nathan A. Talbot