Article May 13, 1985 Issue

Dominion versus addiction

MARIAN C. ENGLISH

A new student of Christian Science woke from a sound sleep one night with a sudden urge to get out of bed and smoke a cigarette. Then the familiar Bible verse from Genesis came to her thought: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion...."^{Gen. 1:26.}

Ever since she had begun to study Christian Science, she had felt a desire to understand more of the Bible. As she thought about this particular verse, it dawned on her that dominion was given to man, not to an addictive substance. For the first time she quietly rebelled at the domineering nature of addiction. If man has dominion, she reasoned, what could force her to do something that was not in her best interest? Satisfied with this simple logic, she went peacefully back to sleep. An addictive habit of many years had been permanently conquered.

It was an effortless healing, but it had been preceded by a great awakening. Christian Science had gradually been opening to her thought the spiritual qualities that reveal dominion—the pure and innocent attributes so natural to God's image and likeness. The powerful simplicity of good was replacing sophistication, toughness, competitiveness, and egotism. She was recognizing that love, patience, humor, and tenderness were her own true and very worthwhile nature. The Christly character beginning to emerge naturally included dominion; thus when the addictive habit asserted itself, although it had remained unchallenged for years, its Goliath aggression was felled with one smooth stone of dominion.

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