Article August 23, 1999 Issue

Your best defense

Bible Lessons help keep children safe.

By Elise L. Moore

My mom had a gun hidden in the bedroom. She thought it was a secret, but my brother and I knew it was there. It looked like a toy gun with a white handle and long barrel. Or rather, toy guns look very realistic. But this one was heavier than a plastic toy. My uncle had given Mom the gun for protection. We lived in a walk-up apartment, and he was worried about her living alone with two small children, so he gave her the gun to make her feel safe. I never felt safe knowing the gun was in the apartment. Apparently neither did Mom. After a while, she gave it back.

I was only nine when she had the gun, but even then, I knew my safety, our family's safety, rested in the power of God, not with the bullet of a gun. This might sound like childlike faith. It was. But it wasn't childish. My conviction in the power of God was rooted in solid spiritual truth. My parents had read the Weekly Bible Lessons to me (composed of passages from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy) for as long as I could remember.^{The Bible Lessons are outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly.} Since I was eight I had been reading the Bible Lesson daily by myself. I'd also been praying to know more of the nature of God and His Christ. Although I might not have comprehended all the vocabulary I read, Christ spoke to me through the spiritual sense of the Word. Every Bible story was alive with God's presence, vibrant with His power. For me, turning to God for protection and guidance was more than faith. It was reasoned conviction.

The assurance I felt from my daily spiritual study could be paraphrased in these words from Psalms: "I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety" (4:8). Many believe that King David wrote this concerning the time when he fled Jerusalem to avoid being killed by his own son Absalom, who was leading a revolt against him. Though obviously well aware of danger, David's conviction in the goodness and power of God was absolute. He knew that God, good, had power over evil, and he voiced this confidence in his prayer.

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