Article October 12, 1998 Issue

FAMILY MATTERS

Raising Children

"When my first marriage collapsed, my love for my child helped motivate me to seek the best support available to keep us both on our feet."

By Barbara Beth Whitewater

The newborn elephant's legs buckled under his greater-than-normal weight. Without being able to stand to suckle, he would not survive. His mother and older sister tried to lift him with their trunks and tusks. They also walked slowly past him, as if to show him what he should do. When the rest of the family left the area in search of food and water, they stayed behind with the troubled baby. Encouraged by these persistent efforts, he improved daily. In six days, he was up on his feet and out of danger.

This example of familial devotion is certainly one that many of us can relate to. Parenting is a joyous but often challenging job. When our child needs a lift, is it animal instinct or human ingenuity that really saves the day? It's neither of these, as Science and Health explains. It states: "The notion that animal natures can possibly give force to character is too absurd for consideration, when we remember that through spiritual ascendency our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to obey him. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods" (p. 67).

We find many wonderful examples of this in the accounts of Jesus' healings. What lay behind his words, to give them such authority? It may have been Jesus' understanding of man's immortal, unfallen nature as the image and likeness of God. Referring to man's likeness to God, Mrs. Eddy writes in Miscellaneous Writings, "If God is upright and eternal, man as His likeness is erect in goodness and perpetual in Life, Truth, and Love" (p. 79). Identifying ourselves and others in this way—as God's spiritual offspring—does have a saving effect.

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