Article March 13, 1995 Issue

Go back to the beginning!

Maureen M. Loster

One Saturday morning my daughter Beth sat down at the piano to practice a favorite piece. As she played, she would come to a measure in the music that was difficult, make a mistake, then go right back to the beginning and play the piece over again—until she came to the difficult part. And again she'd make a mistake. She did this for more than an hour, playing the same piece over and over until one time she didn't make a mistake, and then she played the piece through to the end—perfectly!

We live in a house just big enough for our family of five and just small enough to hear the piano all through the house. As I listened to Beth play, I found myself quite impatient with her. Why didn't she just practice the part that was difficult? Why didn't she leave it and come back later? Why didn't she stop?

I've been a student of Christian Science long enough to know that irritation, resentment, judgment of others, shouldn't take up space in our thinking. So, while Beth continued to practice, I prayed. First, I prayed for myself—to see more about myself as the child of God, to see the patient, gentle, kind thoughts that were truly mine because man is the reflection of divine Love. Mary Baker Eddy says in Science and Health, "Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love" (p. 477). To me this means that I reflect Spirit and therefore I can only know and be good—can only be what God has made me to be. As I prayed this way, all sense of irritation just left.

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