Article February 22, 1999 ISSUE

SELF-DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR AVOIDED

Sylvia L. Loyd

My sense of identity, of who I am, could easily have been lost and never found again if I had accepted that where I came from humanly must determine who I am. I hated where I thought I came from.

When I was at my lowest, however, I met a spiritual mentor who changed my life. She directed me to God as the sole source of my identity. She helped me see that I belonged to none other than God Himself, and that no one could change what He had made. I began to see that my human relations had no claim to or authority over my identity or my health.

I thought a lot about a statement from Science and Health: "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being" (p. 63 ).

Through holding to this statement, and with the help of my mentor's prayers, I escaped the negative behavior that seemed to trap so many of my relatives—alcoholism, abuse, fighting, sexual immorality. I could see that not one of these troubles was part of who I was—or actually of anyone. We are each really created in God's spiritual likeness. I simply couldn't be someone God didn't know.

I'm so glad to have learned that what is written in the first chapter of Genesis serves as man's blueprint. We're told that God made us in His image and likeness and that everything He made is good. This is for all men, women, and children. No one is left out. The blueprint is completed and accepted by its author, God, our only and original Parent, the only Mother-Father we ever need or require.

Sylvia L. Loyd
Kent, Washington

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