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What Matters to You
Safer than a suit of armor
The Christian Science Monitor
Are you afraid of violence? Are you tempted to carry a weapon to school in order to feel safe? Do you feel unprotected unless your parents are around?
I found out one day that you don't need weapons or a parent near in order to find safety and protection. I learned that God is always with us, and He protects us. I found this out because on that day something happened to me that I had always hoped wouldn't happen. I was alone in the park when a gang came in. They were shouting and acting rowdily, and they were heading in my direction. I was scared.
I sat still, and I began to pray, as I had been learning to do through reading the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings. I remembered something that Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health. Speaking of God as divine Love, Mrs. Eddy writes, "Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you" (p. 571). At that time I didn't know what a panoply was. I later learned that it is a full suit of armor. At that point, however, I could tell from the rest of the sentence that it was some kind of protective covering—something I could be dressed in like clothes. And I thought, "If a panoply is of divine Love, which is ever present, then I can know that I am safely clothed in it right now, and I am out of reach of anybody's hatred." I could feel my fear lessen as I became more and more sure that there could be no gap in God's protecting power.
Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.
October 17, 1994 issue
View Issue-
Quality of life: the radical difference Christ makes
Sharon Slaton Howell
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Letters to the press
Christine J. Herlinger
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Well able to heal
Donald Billman
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Challenges, spiritual growth, and love
Barbara Morris
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Name and nature
Hugh George Eccles
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"I bear them no ill will ..."
An interview with Ireland's Senator Gordon Wilson by contributing editor Hazel Joynes
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Preparing for seekers of Truth
Ulrich Hanisch
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Compassion and healing
William E. Moody
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City living without crime
Mary Metzner Trammell
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With profound gratitude I give this testimony of a healing...
Johanna Dietrich
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An acquaintance introduced me to Christian Science in...
Monica Lagerstedt Baldwin
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In the early 1980s, I began to attend Christian Science...
Sharon Pocus Black