Article November 6, 2000 Issue

"It was only a suggestion"

You can let go of irritation.

By Susan Hay McGuire

In a Popular Disney children's movie, two rather sinister-looking eels swim around a very angry little mermaid and try to convince her to visit a sea witch who they say could help her. When the little mermaid at first refuses, one eel says, "It was only a suggestion." The eels don't force her to follow them; they only propose that she should. Within a short time, however, we see the mermaid swimming along with the eels on her way to the sea witch. And, while good does triumph in the end, what the mermaid gets from the sea witch could hardly be called help!

I have often referred to the eel's line, "It was only a suggestion," when talking with my children about their ability to resist sickness or a desire to do something inconsistent with their innocent, pure, and unselfish nature. This idea has been useful to their mother, too!

One afternoon I was tempted to believe that my children were stuck in a cycle of being whiny and dissatisfied and that I was incapable of dealing with them. Reasoning with them—even bribing and threatening them—was not working. I was fed up and turned to God in desperation. The thought came to me that divine Mind's children are obedient to the Mind that makes them. This is based on a sentence from Science and Health that says, "The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which [God] evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them" (p. 295).

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