Article June 15, 1998 Issue

Father knows best

How one father resolved a child care crisis

By James E. Thurman, Jr.

The wall in my den looked blank. I stared at it, facing the fact that I had abruptly become a single parent. And I felt very alone. I was particularly concerned about how to provide the most loving care for my small child. My job required extensive travel, and I was scheduled to make an important business trip in two days. I had no one to care for my daughter when I was at the office or on the road.

Things at home had been difficult for some time, so I had learned to take one step at a time by turning to God for help. Countless times God had given me inspired guidance—practical, healing solutions to all kinds of difficulties—so it was natural for me to turn to Him for help with this problem. My prayer started simply enough: "Father, I know You have an answer. I sure don't!" The next hour was spent praying to replace a crisis of fear and uncertainty with calm and quiet listening for direction.

The tone of my prayer changed. I asked, "What is God knowing about me?" He certainly wasn't knowing me as lonely, overwhelmed, or stranded. The most fundamental need wasn't really to solve a child care crisis, I realized. Rather, this was an occasion for me to prove the spiritual truth that God, as Father-Mother of His creation, was already caring for His beloved child—for me and my daughter. In fact, God, divine Mind, was being expressed right then and there as the very ideas I needed.

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