Are you really a bank robber?

Letter to a teenage friend

Walter Rodgers

Dear **********,

It’s never easy attending a middle school or even a high school. Any adult who tells you it is, has a short memory. I suspect you were right when you told me your parents don’t have any idea of the extent of teasing, bullying, and other cruelties you and young people your age endure at school.

But as I tried to explain in Sunday School, no situation is hopeless. And I have a good enough memory to recall how devastating the torment felt when I was in the eighth grade, living in a rough, working-class neighborhood. I suspect you’ve also discovered that cruel words are more lastingly painful than a slap in the face.

Just because you don’t now know the way out of your dilemma, however, doesn’t mean your situation is impossible, permanent, or cannot be healed. I have seen this kind of cruelty stop almost instantaneously through prayer.

We don’t need to know how our healing will come, but it helps to acknowledge there is a power bigger and smarter than you and me governing us all—God, the one divine Mind.

Never forget that you are the beloved child of God. This is your only real identity, your spiritual identity, as the Bible makes clear. You are not a troubled, unloved, tormented teenager, though I know that when something awful is happening to you, it certainly feels like the worst thing in the whole world.

By the way, don’t underestimate the Bible. For several thousand years, it has carried men and women, boys and girls, through wars, plagues, and famines—many far more difficult situations than yours or mine.

If you feel no one is a friend, check out the much persecuted Jeremiah, a biblical Hebrew prophet who lived 2,600 years ago. He had some good advice for you: “Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord” (Jeremiah 1:8).

Isn’t deliverance what you are looking for? In Sunday School you’ve become familiar with the Beatitudes taught by Christ Jesus, including: “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely . . . . Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:11, 12). So, the next time you feel persecuted, try saying: “OK, God, I’m ready to move on. And looking forward to that reward.”

Mary Baker Eddy, who founded this magazine, was also maligned. Still, she wrote, “We must have trials and self-denials, as well as joys and victories, until all error is destroyed” (Science and Health, p. 39).

It may surprise you that adults sometimes face similar harassment at work. Everyone from your mom and dad to army generals and presidents have felt that same sting. You may also be surprised to discover that your prayers and the good thoughts you hold can actually transform and heal the bullies and persecutors—those you perceive to be your enemies. Again the Bible shows you how: “When a man’s ways please the Lord [God], he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him” (Proverbs 16:7). Pleasing God, putting Him first, is the key.

You know, it really doesn’t matter what the other kids think of you. Flimsy human opinions are always changing, and often very wrong. So, don’t cherish the lies told by others—they are just so much heavy baggage to carry. Cast them overboard.

If I called you a bank robber, you would laugh at that nonsense. So, the next time anyone mistakenly condemns you, dismiss the criticism as being just as silly as the idea that you rob banks after school. You are a God-centered being. You aren’t who your school mates say you are, because God disallows any untruth about you. His is the only “opinion” that matters.

It’s not what others think that matters. It’s what God thinks about you that counts, and He is certain of your goodness. I hope this helps. Your friend, W.

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