Article July 10, 1978 Issue

Joyful persistence

JANE PARTIS McCARTY

Have you ever watched a baby learning to stand by itself for the first time? Or to walk by itself? A baby will stand up over and over again until it has learned to get up and sit back down freely. And a baby will also practice and practice until it can walk by itself. Babies don't fuss or fume about persisting. They just do it.

That same joyful persistence is a necessary ingredient in successfully practicing Christian Science. We, too, need to love what we are doing, to make our persistence natural and unquestioning.

Christ Jesus was so pure and unselfed and his spiritual understanding so clear that he could heal instantly. But he gave us a parable that shows he knew the value of persistence in healing work. He tells of a man who went to a friend's house at midnight and asked for three loaves of bread. The answer from within was, "Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee." Then Jesus explained, "I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth."^{Luke 11:7, 8;} Jesus related this parable to his disciples after instructing them how to pray.