Cruising the highways with God

When your teen starts driving

By Leslee Godfrey Allen

When my daughter began driving a few years ago, I found myself fearing for her safety, especially since she was driving on crowded freeways at rush hour and at night. I prayed and held firmly to the fact that God, her true Father-Mother, was always with her, directing her actions.

My anxiety began to subside when these thoughts came to me one day: "This child is the 'idea, the image, of Love.'" This phrase is from Mary Baker Eddy's book Science and Health (see p. 475). It's part of a spiritual description of man as created in the likeness of God, who is Love. I also thought of a hymn that speaks of the "atmosphere of Love divine" (No. 144, Christian Science Hymnal), and I realized that this is the true atmosphere all of us live in, because God is everywhere. In that atmosphere there's no hatred or hurry, just God's loving and tender presence.

A sentence from one of Mrs. Eddy's articles in her Miscellaneous Writings also helped me. It says, "We have nothing to fear when Love is at the helm of thought, but everything to enjoy on earth and in heaven" (p. 113).

I understood that "Love is at the helm of [my daughter's] thought." I saw that everyone on those freeways was in reality surrounded by Love. There was no chance for anyone to be separated from the presence of divine Love.

God really does take care of us all.

I can honestly say that I was unshaken when, months later, our daughter called from the side of the freeway. She said that suddenly she couldn't control the speed of the car, which was stuck at full speed. Although frightened, she'd had the presence of mind to apply the brake repeatedly, which slowed the car enough for her to be able to pull over to the side of the road and to shift the car's transmission out of "drive" into "neutral" and then into "park," causing it to jerk to a stop. No accident occurred.

Her dad, who is often out of town on business, was at home and available to help her get her car to our local garage. The mechanic determined that somehow the throttle linkage was jammed in the full-speed position and that there was nothing my daughter could have done to dislodge it while driving. We were grateful for her safety, but also felt that this answered prayer brought peace of mind to her and us about the future as well.

God really does take care of us all. Children are not at the mercy of chance. Parents are not at a loss in providing for their safety.

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