Instead of banging your head against a wall of frustration and despair, try this approach, Go for a walk in the woods. A mental walk.

Take time to smell the fragrance, to enjoy the stillness. Watch the squirrels frolic. Listen to the birds sing. And look up at the size of those trees. Why, some of them grow under the worst possible conditions—in poor soil or crowded by a rock. Yet they defiantly shoot upward.

Why can't we, similarly, break through the rocks and barren soil of adverse circumstances? Why can't we—no matter what—keep on growing and growing and growing in wisdom, understanding, and spiritual accomplishment? What is it that would hold us back, limit our usefulness, curtail our momentum?

One obstacle might be that, instead of defying, we tend to give in to limiting suggestion connected, perhaps, with our background. Or our upbringing, disposition, lack of opportunity, economic stratum—any of these might seem too oppressive to break out of. But is that confined mortal really what we are? Do material conditions, states of matter, control and dominate us?

Christian Science shows us that they don't have to. Man as God made him is spiritual. Because he's not material, he's not troubled or affected by any supposed material factor. If we find ourselves getting bogged down with matter, banging our heads against belief in one material restriction after another, isn't it time we began glimpsing how free and complete man, God's creation, really is? This spiritual glimpsing is the start of spiritual growth—an increasing, inspiring consciousness of the correct relationship between God and man.

Christ Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."^{John 8:32;} He proved truth to be effective to break bonds, to enlighten, to heal.

How about us? Are we letting the view of man as physical—that sad misrepresentaion of man—obscure for us man's true, spiritual being?

The truth is that man is, and remains, eternal and immortal, unbound and free. This truth is irreversible, unimpeachable, and indestructible. It can't be invalidated for even a moment. As we let the facts of man's spiritual being grow in our consciousness, we'll be more inspired and buoyant. We'll have the fresh inspiration we need to see us through in defeating obstructing, limiting beliefs about man.

Man has always existed in God's family as a spiritual idea, and so he will continue. Divine Love holds back no good from its creation. And so man—what we all really are—has always been loved. When we are aware of this, no disappointment can undermine or govern our consciousness.

Man is perfect and holy because of his relation to unchanging, immutable Soul. Not a mortal who can have a sour, even deadly disposition, man is always at one with all that Soul imparts in beauty, form, and expression. Man, as the representation of eternal Life, has nothing but vitality and good in store for him—and present with him now. He has unlimited capabilities because that's the way he is created and the way he remains. His resources originate from a divine, boundless basis.

As we pray along these lines for ourselves and others, and know that these truths apply to all, we're growing in spiritual comprehension. And that's real growth. That's what counts. Restrictions will start collapsing. Opportunites to do good, to help others, to develop our career, will come knocking. Joy and peace will abound. We'll discover what life is all about. Mrs. Eddy, our Leader, writes: "With our Master, life was not merely a sense of existence, but an accompanying sense of power that subdued matter and brought to light immortality, insomuch that the people 'were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.' Life, as defined by Jesus, had no beginning; it was not the result of organization, or infused into matter; it was Spirit."^{Retrospection and Introspection, p. 58;}

This is what spiritual growth reveals. It improves our character; transforms despairing, deadened thinking; revitalizes sagging faith; and gets us moving forward in the right way. We're awakening and responding to the Christ, Truth, which Jesus so perfectly expressed.

Once I was having respiratory trouble at night. And this had been going on for some time. One night as I started my midnight clamor, my wife finally said, "Don't you think it's about time you had help?" (She was referring to the help of a Christian Science practitioner.)

I agreed and called a practitioner to pray for me. I knew I had my part to do, so I went into the living room and started reading the current Lesson-Sermon, provided in the Christian Science Quarterly. Frankly, I wasn't gaining much. But I persisted.

Then—quite suddenly—I hit home. I came across Mrs. Eddy's statement in Science and Health: "It is Love which paints the petal with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness."^{Science and Health, p. 247.} This made me think. I had to admit my night certainly didn't seem like the one described. But then I thought, "It is! It is!"

I realized my night was blazoned "with starry gems"—statements of truth true for me and everyone. Ugliness, sickness, mortality, I could see, were lies about the man God, divine Love, had made. I suddenly became more grateful for what I was learning than I was concerned about the symptoms. I could see I was being forced to grow, to grasp more of the spiritual facts of man.

Within twenty-four hours I had so improved I dismissed the practitioner. And by the following day I was completely healed. More important, I gained an inner joy and peace, which healed. More important, I gained an inner joy and peace, which to this day—several years later—continue to inspire me. Spiritual enlightenment goes hand in hand with real spiritual growth.

So whatever suggestion of ill health or need is confronting you, and however long it has continued, insist on growing spiritually. That's the greatest experience any of us can have. We can surmount our individual brick walls, which are nothing but mortal beliefs of vulnerability. Man is not a mortal. When we glimpse this, our nights—any darkened state of thought that would dim our recognition of true being—will be blazoned, free of restrictive material conditions, "with starry gems." Spiritual insights into man's relationship to God help us break through limitation. They carry us over pitfalls of fear and doubt. They lift us above despair. They give us a wonderful purpose in life—to glorify God.

What more could we ask?