Article February 18, 2002 Issue

The day I rewrote my life

By Patricia Tupper Hyatt Contributing Editor

IT STARTED LIKE ANY OTHER DAY. I woke up and started praying. This day was different, however. Instead of inspiration, scenes of my childhood paraded through my thought. It was totally uncharacteristic of me to look back. I needed to get on with today. But, I couldn't find the OFF button!

As the flashbacks continued to unreel, I began to wonder what this meant. I had been praying to accept God as the only influence in my life. These recollections were of myself as a child, whose development had been according to happenstance, the influence of teachers, parents, and friends—even birth order and a bloodline. Could prayer be bringing something out in the open that needed healing? I decided to go with it and see.

Now, understand that my childhood was a happy one. Evidently, what I was coming to terms with was that, if I perceived myself as anything other than God's own spiritual likeness—even as a fortunate mortal—then I was on shaky ground. Unless I "rewrote" my childhood according to spiritual reality—that is, God's influence—I would be accepting influences that were not legitimate. What is not of God, who is completely good, is not legitimate.

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