Help from the Bible

The Christian Science Monitor

I Was attending a Christian Science Sunday School. Each Sunday the teacher would have us memorize different verses from the Bible. But she wanted us to do more than just know the right words. She wanted us to understand what they meant and to make what they said practical in our lives. At times, I wasn't sure if I would really remember what I was learning if I was afraid of hurt. Time and time again, though, I found that not only could I remember what I had read in the Bible, but the verses were comforting, guiding, and healing—just as my teacher had assured us they would be!

When I was offered drugs at school, for example, I was able to refuse them because I remembered the First Commandment from Exodus: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me" (20:3). I understood this to mean that we shouldn't worship or serve anyone or anything except God. I didn't just refuse the drugs because I knew they were bad for me—almost everyone knows that. I refused them because I had learned through the Bible that choosing to do and be good makes us feel closer to God, who is good. I knew that I wanted to please God, to grew closer to Him, because that's what would really make me happy, peaceful, and strong. In fact, because God made me pure like Him, it was natural for me to want to know Him better and to obey His guidance.

Because I didn't want anything in my life to be more important to me than God, I could see that I didn't want to take drugs. And we can reject anything else that would try to dominate us, like stealing, lying, cheating, envying, through prayer that helps us to understand what God is and what He wants us—His very own children (and that includes our parents)—to do.

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