While I was watching what appeared to be a rather hazardous rollerblading competition, my memory raced back to a time when my children were just as enthusiastic about skateboarding. We even drove to a large city to purchase the headgear, the elbow, wrist, and knee guards, and so forth that common sense required in order to ensure safe landings! But more necessary, we felt, was the recognition of God's ever-presence with us and of our safety in Him. The acknowledgment of this fact is always the best protective measure and not something to be minimized or disregarded.

Lifting our thoughts in prayer to God, good, enables us increasingly to rise above the belief that harm is possible to God's children and to prove that we are never defenseless! Prayer equips us with the certainty of the divine power with us. The supposed vulnerability of man to accidents can be challenged with prayer based on an understanding of God's allness. This understanding acknowledges the enduring presence of good, and man made in God's likeness—safe, complete, wholly spiritual, and spiritually whole.

Wisdom is one of the wonderful qualities of God that is ours to claim as His image and likeness. "Put on the whole armour of God" is Paul's advice for a sure defense. And he continues: "Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God" (Eph. 6:11, 14–17). Righteousness, peace, faith, and so on, are qualities that have their source in God. They are natural to us and available at all times.

A good example of the protection we can experience through putting on the spiritual armour of trust in God's care can be seen in the Bible account of David and Goliath (see I Sam., chap. 17). David, who was "but a youth," had been delivered "out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear" when he and the sheep he was caring for were threatened. These experiences had left a lasting impression on him of God's power, so he fully expected to be delivered from this encounter with the Philistine.

Fearlessly he challenged Goliath, "a man of war from his youth." Goliath was likely arrayed in heavy bronze armor as he came toward David to fight. But David avowed, "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts." David proved trust in God to be the finest armor. Shielded by this trust, David prevailed and his people were also blessed.

Why is it that prayer makes such a decided difference in one's life experience? Because it brings our thought into accord with the power and wisdom and love of God. And it shows us more clearly who we really are—shows us that there is more to man than is seen by the physical senses.

Science and Health says: "Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas ..." (p. 475). How could God, who is infinite Love, allow even the thought of chance or accident to befall His loved child? He couldn't.Realizing that we are always in the presence of the "everywhereness" of God enables us to feel and prove our safety in His care. We read in the Scriptures, "The Eternal will guard you from all harm, he will preserve your life; he will protect you as you come and go, now and for evermore" (Moffatt translation, Ps. 121:7, 8). ^{The King James Version reads: "The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore."}

Realizing this has been preventive of accidents many times in our family. When it seems accidents have occurred, claiming man's unity with God has brought quick healing results. On one such occasion, I received a telephone call from a young girl our daughter was baby-sitting. She said calmly that our Linda had fallen while skateboarding down their driveway slope and was lying unconscious in the street. My husband and I immediately drove the few miles to the family's house, conscious that God was already present, that He was ever conscious of His child, and that His child was ever conscious of His presence. By the time we arrived, our daughter had revived and was inside the house.

How grateful we were that our pastor, the Bible and Science and Health, was within reach. I turned immediately to these healing statements in Science and Health: "When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, 'I am hurt!' Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real.

"Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be" (p. 397).

Judy, the little girl who had called, and her brother David, both in grade school, were listening and watching wide-eyed. We talked about God's constant care for His children, who are always safe in His encircling love. What a hug that was for us all! I asked Linda if she wanted me to bring her older sister to baby-sit so she could come home, but she said, "It's not necessary, because I'm not hurt." What a good lesson this was for us in trusting God and putting on "the whole armour."

The next day, Judy's mother, who is a close friend, called to tell me that Judy had gone to the freezer to get a popsicle. It was stuck in the ice. Judy had taken an ice pick to free it, but had severely injured her hand instead. She ran to her mom and dad, assuring them, "I am not hurt!" Furthermore, she understood the reason why—she had her armor on and understood that God was caring for her! She had no fear, as she had just witnessed a similar proof of that spiritual fact and accepted it as the truth for herself. The hand was back to its normal condition immediately. The mother said she never would have considered her children old enough to understand the statement from Science and Health that I had shared the day before. How happy she was to learn a lesson also!

Our real objective in sports—and in life—is to serve the purposes of God and to glorify Him. What an opportunity this is for all of us to bear witness to man's true, indestructible nature as God's expression. God is ever present and the only power. This fact assures us that safety and health can be experienced at every point, whatever our field of activity.