My community has been in the news many times over the last few years. Just recently it once again made the headlines because another teenager died from an overdose of heroin. What has taken many by surprise is that my community is a lovely suburb and an, apparently, unlikely candidate for teen drug abuse. Yet several teens have died from drug use, and several children have committed suicide.

For those of us living here, it has been heartbreaking. Such deaths leave students confused about who their friends really are and who they are. They frighten parents who feel vulnerable and wonder if they really know their child. Good parents who are caring have even wondered if their daughter or son will be next.

To its credit, our town has established a series of drug-awareness campaigns and has opened up services for teens, including a youth hotline. Ultimately, however, the solution can be found in more family awareness and involvement. Rick Neudorff, the deputy mayor pro tem, said, "It really is a war, but the bottom line is that it starts with the family, the church, and the community. You have to stay attuned with what children are doing. If each family did that, then the law-enforcement job would be a lot easier" ("When heroin touches an entire town," The Christian Science Monitor, October 5, 1999).

His statement and other coverage of the issue have alerted me to be more thoughtful in my prayers about our community family, and more supportive of the many wonderful parents who are clearly trying their best to meet their children's needs. It has required me to think more deeply about what is true of God and His child and how that can comfort and bring healing to families who are struggling with such issues. A story a friend told me recently gave me new hope, insight, and even a new personal assignment.

My friend—I'll call him Eric—had been using drugs at school. At one point he felt it was necessary to tell his parents. His parents were deeply concerned, but it was his mother—who was known for her prayerful approach to many things—who was able to bring a spiritual perspective to the problem. When Eric told her, she emphatically stated, "I know you. I know who you are. I know what you are, and I do not believe this about you!" About six months after their discussion, Eric's desire for using drugs simply dropped away.

At first Eric said that he was taken aback by his mother's firm response. He wondered if she was simply in denial. But through the years, he has understood more clearly the spiritual basis on which she took her stand. He also recognized that her spiritual stand had everything to do with his gaining freedom from drugs. It was this kind of true family awareness—a spiritual awareness, really—that brought healing.

Eric's mother had learned about the spiritual identity of God's child through Christian Science. This concept of creation isn't the common view—where one's identity is seen as a mortal transitioning through stages of life, including the teen years, and where young people can seem dissatisfied, easily influenced, and self-destructive. The spiritual concept of God's man, including woman, is also very far from the human view of a self-absorbed parent who is neglectful of a child's needs.

The spiritual identity of each of us is fundamentally based in the fact that we are actually the image of God, the God who is Love. The offspring of divine Love is naturally giving, motivated by unselfishness, and fully satisfied. As the likeness of God, who is intelligent Mind, our true being exists forever as God's indestructible idea, always balanced, and always capable of intelligent judgment.

Eric's mother saw the practical results of this teaching. A further explanation is given in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. Its author, Mary Baker Eddy, writes: "Your mirrored reflection is your own image or likeness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours. Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere" (pp. 515–516).

Holding to this spiritual and scientific view of identity and rejecting what her eyes and ears were telling her about Eric brought dramatic results for Eric's mother, just as it did for Eric. His mother's spontaneous statement, "I know who you are," sprang from a commitment to this study of the true nature of God's man as His spiritual idea. She had made it a priority to think of her son—to know her son—in this way. This spiritual discipline gave her the authority to state that she knew her son's true identity and that she would not accept for a minute any other "name"—or nature—for him.

The Bible speaks repeatedly of God knowing the name of each of us. It states, "I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine" (Isa. 43:1). The name God gives each child is good and unique, reflecting His attributes. The Bible also declares that God is "of purer eyes than to behold evil" (Hab. 1:13).

Eric's mother devoted herself to knowing him as his heavenly Father did—innocent, and having integrity and nobility. She refused to recognize him in any other way. This enabled her to reject immediately the belief that evil could take hold of her son. This spiritual commitment helped her to discern what changes in his attitude or behavior were needed to free him from the temptations posed by drugs.

This knowledge, really knowing his spiritual identity, blessed Eric and his whole family. It has the same potential to bless the wider community. Educating ourselves to know each individual as God knows him or her helps to dispel a false sense of our neighbor, and it also helps our children to know who they are and who they are not.

How can you know who you aren't, if you don't know who you are? Or how can you truly love yourself and value yourself if you don't know who you are? Truly knowing the spiritual nature God has given each of us helps us to defend ourselves against evil influences and thoughts that are no part of our true nature. It also protects us against the extreme materialism that would ultimately lead us or our friends to seek a material solution for every need, including a need for entertainment. Oftentimes such thinking looks for the next "rush" and will seek it in material substances, including drugs.

We should never underestimate the power of prayer and its effect upon others. Just as Eric's mother's prayers had a direct impact on her son's life, so will our prayers directly affect our community. Since our community is fundamentally a state of mind, reflecting the thinking of its citizens, what we add to the mental mix can be constructive and healing.

With this in thought, I accepted a new spiritual assignment for my town—even considering it a civic duty: to pray for its safety and well-being on a regular basis. We can all make a significant contribution to our neighborhoods in this way. When we rub shoulders with our neighbors, pass a teen on the street corner, or stand in line next to a parent at the grocery store, we can smile and silently rejoice, "I know who you are."