Article February 26, 2001 Issue

Nothing to wait for, nothing to fear

"Today we share a very special, caring relationship."

By Joan Ware

I had just read a list of negative tendencies or trends that were associated with the coming of the millennium—feelings of disunity, cynicism, a rejection of authority, and a feeling that persecution is necessary. As I considered these items in light of my relationship with my daughter Melinda at that time, I thought how much the list described my home right then.

But since none of these conditions were from God, they had no real cause, even if they did seem very challenging at times. God alone is the one cause. All real effects proceed from this one cause. And because God is good, all real effects must be good, too. The negative attitudes I was getting from my teenager and was sometimes feeling myself were like an overdone movie, which everyone knows is only a fiction even though it seems very real while you're watching it. So they had no power to influence our relationship.

This glimpse of God's goodness being the only presence immediately gave me new hope. I could see now that no matter how long these attitudes seemed to have been affecting our family, they never had any ultimate power. They had never really defined who we were, or even touched us. Each of these negative tendencies amounted to what people were believing to be legitimate threats. They were, in this sense, beliefs. And each could be seen as an imposition on the glory and grandeur of God's perfect creation. By understanding that the opposite quality was in each case the one from God, I could find the real, spiritual fact. Here's the way it went for me:

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