My special collection of good thoughts

Barbara A. McCubbin

Are you a collector? Perhaps you collect coins or dolls, stamps or stickers, buttons or shells. If you are a keen collector, you spend time finding out about your subject, improving your collection, and getting more things for it. Maybe you like to show it to your friends and tell them how you found some of the items.

When I was in the Christian Science Sunday School, our teacher gave us a verse from the Bible and a sentence from Mrs. Eddy's book Science and Health to memorize each week. I used to think of these quotations as my collection—a collection of thoughts—which I kept even after I completed my years in Sunday School.

It is a useful collection, and I always have it with me. I remember one time when my father took me swimming so he could see the progress I was making. I splashed about in the shallow end of the pool where I could keep one toe on the bottom, since I couldn't really swim very well. When my father suggested that I go down to the deep end, I was afraid. Not wanting to disappoint him, I walked along to the steps at the deep end of the pool. While I was sitting there two thoughts from my collection came to me—"Perfect love casteth out fear"^{I John 4:18.} from the Bible, and "The depth, breadth, height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all space"^{Science and Health, p. 520.} from Science and Health. Then I wasn't afraid. I just slipped into the deep water and swam the whole length of the pool without difficulty.