Article June 30, 2008 Issue

'KINGDOM LIVING' AND HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

BY LAMEICE HARDING

HOW MANY TIMES have you heard someone characterized a relationship using the term dysfunctional? You might notice it in the remarks of political pundits on the news or characters in a TV sitcom. Maybe it's even peppered into jokes at a family reunion. Often those comments point to a larger issue that needs sincere prayerful attention.

All of us naturally want to feel appreciated and valued, to be recognized and loved. And I've found in order to realize this feeling of security, it takes gaining a higher, clearer understanding of what a properly functioning relationship is; what will work and what will last. There's only one real way that can happen, and that's to understand first and foremost our relationship with God. Regardless of the many times you've heard that statement before, now, this very minute, you may want to pause and let it seep deeply into your consciousness in a new way.

When I discovered Christian Science, I'd been through years of hardship in my family, and had a persistent feeling that I was left out. Through Christian Science, I was brought into a wonderful sense of how we can trust every word that God tells us, because He created us and made us like Himself. That doesn't mean that God is a big person and we're little people looking like Him. But, as the first chapter of Genesis from the Bible states, we are like Him in terms of quality. We are Godlike in our kindness and our goodness, our desire to love, and our desire to help others and express tenderness.