Prayer from the 'Grandma seat'

Parents learn their craft only by experience. All the books in the world cannot teach one what really lies ahead in the adventure of raising children. Once that baby wriggles free of your arms and starts that crawl of discovery, only some of their behavior will pattern what you expect. Child development is said to be influenced by many factors, but there actually exists an individuality in each person that has nothing to do with human predictions or material laws. The parent has the awesome opportunity to discover this.

I understand this better now that I sit in the “Grandma seat.” And as I watch my own children raising their families (and doing it very well), I find myself laughing a great deal. It is humorous to me that my sons are giving lectures to the young men who come to call on their daughters, or rolling their eyes at such a prospect. It is hysterical to listen to my daughters lament over missing clothes and shoes, which their daughters find are cool enough to be worn to middle school. But the thing I enjoy the most is watching my children’s and grandchildren’s lives continue to unfold as more and more of their spiritual individuality becomes apparent.

When we think of man as the expression of God, all things become possible.

On page 69 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy elaborates on this subject: “God’s children already created will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being. Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion as the false and material disappears.” This citation is very helpful because it gives the conditions of how we must view one another in order to detect this somewhat hidden or “real, ideal man” in everyone. The “false and material” descriptions of man must be replaced by the truthful and spiritual identity that is his or her reality. How important it is, then, to be seeing man the way the Bible tells us he was originally made: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” And all that He created, He created very good (see Genesis 1:27, 31 ).

When we think of man as the expression of God, all things become possible, because all things are available. It is wonderful when raising children to understand that all the right answers are there for discovery, provided by divine Love, and that the right way to implement them is part of that unfoldment. We can trust that arrangement because answers from God always lead us to recalibrate our views to behold perfection, or that original image and likeness of God, called man.

From my Grandma seat I now sit back, trying not to give human advice. This is a difficult task for me, for I often think I have a lot of experience and am very good at giving lectures. But I know that my track record cannot compete with answers from God, who “always has met and always will meet every human need” (Science and Health, p. 494 ). In a way it’s like sitting in the back seat. In the front seat, mental traffic jams promote sudden stops. But from the back seat, the driving can be trusted to God.

The peaceful act of letting is a back-seat occupation. It impels the tongue to rest and the heart to pray. It teaches the right concept of humility and the strength of faith in action. It is the ultimate joy of knowing that what you have said or done came from God.

God does not need my “expert opinion” to help Him provide for His beautiful creation. This is the instruction I get in my Grandma seat: to “let go and let God,” to know that He is in charge, and, of course, to enjoy the view.