"Stop thinking of yourself as an older sister"

Diane McNamara Page

My younger sister was the first in our family to buy an electric iron. She was in high school at the time, and I was living and working in a city several hours away. When I came home for a holiday visit, she asked if I'd like to use the new beauty gadget. I had seen curling irons in the stores but had never tried one. My sister coached me on the correct techniques involved, and I gave it a try. It wasn't as easy as it looked. My awkward, all-thumbs approach left me with an unusual hairdo, and my sister with a mild case of the giggles!

"Forget it!" I cried in embarrassed frustration. "I just can't do this." She laughed lightly and then, not allowing me to give up, patiently continued her instruction. I eventually got the hang of it and received many compliments on my stylish curls. However, the whole incident left me with an unexplainable feeling of discomfort.

I had learned in my study of Christian Science not to ignore such feelings in the hope they would just go away. I knew that inharmony of any kind, no matter how small it seems, results from a misconception of God and His creation, so I quietly prayed to know what I needed to understand to be at peace. The answer came as a simple and direct instruction: Stop thinking of yourself as an older sister.

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