Article February 27, 1978 Issue

Choosing your pictures

LILIAN C. DAVIS

Linda had never felt more alone. She had woken up very early feeling hot and uncomfortable. She'd looked in the mirror and had hardly recognized herself from the swollen, discolored image she had seen. Trying to keep calm, she began to pray with these words: "Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God."^{Science and Health, p. 243;} She knew these words by Mrs. Eddy from Science and Health, and she affirmed them again and again, trying to realize what they meant.

Linda had learned in the Christian Science Sunday School that God is good and that He is all-power. "Be still, and know that I am God,"^{Ps. 46:10;} she murmured, trying to do just that. She had heard people at church give testimonies about turning away from the "false pictures" of sickness or injury. These "false pictures" were mental images that needed to be erased before a healing could come. She knew she must turn away from this dreadful picture of herself in the mirror and look into what God knew about her—that she was His perfect child. She decided there and then that she wasn't going to look into the mirror again, because that wouldn't tell her the truth. She was going to think of all the lovely, true things she knew about herself.

One thing was bothering her—she was sort of in charge at home. Her mother and sister had gone off to Spain, and she was coping with Dad's meals and looking after the cat. It had meant spending a bit less time with her friends so that she could keep Dad company, and she hadn't minded that. But he would be very disturbed about the way she looked now, to put it mildly. She dreaded facing him. If only she could lurk about upstairs until he'd gone to work. But he'd never be fooled. He knew she was always up and out like clockwork, and he'd give her no peace if she stayed in her room. There he was, calling her now.

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