Article November 5, 1979 Issue

Friends

VIRGINIA CANADAY PIKE

Sometimes young people who want to be moral feel isolated from their peers. They find that many activities common to some others of their age-group—experimentation with drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and sex—are not consistent with their convictions. At the same time, they feel the need for friendship with other young people.

A young woman in a women's college faced this problem during the first part of her college years. She found herself virtually alone in her dorm on many Saturday nights while her friends went out with young men they had met from nearby universities. Her prospects for meeting anyone seemed slim, and friendships with fellow students, too, seemed rather shallow.

This young woman felt there must be a way to solve the problem through her study of Christian Science. She knew that the first step had to be a conviction of her own completeness, an understanding that she did not need a male person to give her fulfillment. She saw that Christ Jesus did not begin attracting followers until after his solitary wilderness experience. After this period of fasting and prayer, his understanding of his own identity as the Son of God must have been firmly established.

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