Editorial November 25, 1991 Issue

Prayer, praise, and thanksgiving

Ann Kenrick

A friend of mine gave thanks to God recently at a Wednesday meeting in The Mother Church for a healing he had experienced. The week before, the readings from the Bible and Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy had been on praise, and he said they reminded him of a time when he was in a deep depression about his life. It had seemed to him that his life was not worth anything, and he was quite ready to give up on himself.

As a practicing Christian Scientist, he knew he should do something about this negative, unproductive thinking—and he knew he could. He began with prayer. As he started to pray in earnest, he began to glimpse that God, divine Mind, knew nothing about the assessment of the situation that he'd been making. He remembered two verses in the Old Testament, in the book of Habakkuk: "Art thou not from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine Holy One? ... Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity."

My friend said that as he started to express gratitude for God's constancy and purity, the emptiness and desolation he had been feeling were replaced, first by gratitude, then by praise, and finally by glorifying God. After about two hours of this exalting prayer, the feeling of unworthiness had been wiped out and replaced with thankfulness for the actuality of God and His constant care for man, His loved child.

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