Article March 22, 2010 Issue

JUST LISTEN AND LOVE

Anna-Lena Hathaway

THERE'S A QUOTE I really like from the Bible, "And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity" (I Cor. 13:13). "Charity" is often defined as "Christian love." And in the New Living Translation, "charity" is translated as "love." Mary Baker Eddy said that Love is a synonym for God, and as God's children, I believe it's our duty to love each other.

I'm a junior in high school now, and starting in eighth grade, I began working on earning a "Congressional Award," which is a four-part US government-sponsored award. One of its components is voluntary service, and so I decided to volunteer at a Christian Science nursing facility. When I first began, I was just there to achieve a certain amount of hours for my award. At first I felt bored and thought there was nothing for me to do. But this quickly changed when I got to know some of the residents there. One day, I was asked to teach the movement/ activities class with the residents and got to play games with them. I also started to share my thoughts with the residents, letting them know they're loved, and praying to see them in the right spiritual light. We would knit, do puzzles together, and talk.

I helped one woman sort her mail. She did everything in her room and hardly ever left. After several weeks of visiting with her, one day when I arrived, she was sitting in the hallway of her room, in an area with floor-to-ceiling windows. She said that she just wanted to be with people and sit in the sun. We sat there and talked for a while, and I was so moved because I felt it was possible for me to help someone else just by changing my thought.

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AT HOME WITH MUM
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