Relationships: what should we be looking for?

Amy Jones Richmond

Dating . I was really beginning to dislike it. My dates were going from bad to worse! The few men I met whom I found interesting weren't all that interested in me. And then I had a series of disappointing evenings with men who did want to pursue a relationship with me. The trouble was that I just couldn't make myself like them in that exciting, romantic way that I thought was so essential to a "real" date. Obviously, there was no balance in this area of my life and I felt unhappy and depressed.

I asked myself, "Could this pattern possibly be what God has in store for me?" Even as I asked the question, I didn't really believe that this was what He wanted for me or—for that matter—what He knew of me. As a Christian Scientist I understood that God is good, which the Bible teaches, and that He continuously gives good to His children.

So, what was happening on these unsatisfactory dates of mine—when things were definitely not so good? Frankly, the answer required prayer and some honest self-examination. I realized that my concept of man needed to change. I prayed to have a clearer idea of the man that God created. In her book Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, gives the spiritual sense of what man is: "The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind." I certainly hadn't been witnessing man in God's image on my dates! But what if I did—through prayer? Spending time with "the spiritual image and likeness of God" would be rich and rewarding. And since this definition includes everyone, I could start by seeing myself in this spiritual light, as an individual expression of Mind, God.

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