Prayer for our neighborhoods

I live in a neighborhood that has gone through several changes in the recent economic downturn, and many owner-occupied houses have become rentals. As the scene changed and there was less care for some homes, I felt little in common with my newer neighbors, particularly the teens. But step by step I have been proving better fellowship with my neighbors by knowing God as our one Father-Mother.

This has resulted in changes in my relationships with others in the area. 

One day, I noticed a young teen throwing stones at some small children, and then he made his way down the street to my house, throwing stones and pushing at garbage cans. I told him to stop as he passed by. He was resentful of the comment, challenging my right to say anything. After that, he travelled in a crowd of middle-school-aged children and would harass me at the mailbox, apparently drawing strength from those laughing around him. It became so pervasive that I called the police and a policewoman sat on my front porch and told me to basically ignore the kids. She said she had moved further down the road into the neighborhood and there were several “wannabes” that acted in this fashion, but she felt they were harmless. I altered the times I went to the mailbox and didn’t respond to the taunts, but I knew as a Christian Scientist I had more work to do. I began to prayerfully see these youngsters as part of my universal family, as the children of God.

The Lord’s Prayer is a powerful prayer to heal discord. The first line is, “Our Father which art in heaven” (Matthew 6:9 ). The spiritual interpretation, given by Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, says: “Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious” (p. 16 ). This concept of God as Father and Mother of us all brings us together as children of the one Mind, God. And praying with this concept helped me to see that I actually had much in common with my neighbors. We were all part of God’s family, and I prayed to see this more clearly.

Things didn’t get better immediately, though. While I was passing the park on a walk near my home, a favorite daily activity, three teenage girls sitting on a bench yelled out to me trying to get my attention. They swore at me until I was much further down the street. For a while after this incident I actually altered the path of my walks, but started praying more earnestly on a daily basis for the whole neighborhood.

It was, and still is, helpful to know that each individual I meet in my daily activities has a pure and perfect individuality that is his or her birthright from God and this spiritual identity can never be touched by hateful or lawless thinking. We are all beloved of God, and naturally loving as God’s expression. The inherent innocence of God’s children cannot be defiled by prejudicial thinking or economic disparity. Love’s ideas are supplied with everything they need to live a fruitful and productive life. It is normal to expect that God’s ideas can live together in harmony and respect.

Science and Health states: “God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them” (p. 295 ). Obedience not only includes respect for our Creator, but respect and love for one another.

It is normal to expect that God's ideas can live together in harmony and respect.

Also, in the Bible, we learn that Jesus felt great love toward children and said, “Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me” (Mark 9:37 ). This, of course, does not exclude teens and young adults. Jesus said to Peter, “Feed my lambs” (John 21:15 ). So I knew that these “lambs”—in my case these young people—are cherished by their heavenly Parent, divine Mind, and must be seen this way.

As I left the house one day, driving slowly down the street, three high school students approached and surrounded my car. “We want your money,” they yelled. I looked at their expensive-looking sports clothing, including new shoes, and impulsively yelled back that with shoes like theirs they didn’t need my money! I laughed at my own response and this broke any sense of shock and fear I felt. I renewed my prayer that God, divine Principle, controlled and governed all harmoniously.

During this time of praying for my neighborhood, there was a change in my character. I became friendlier. I started practicing what I believed. I like where Mary Baker Eddy said in her 1898 class, as told by one of her pupils Edward Norwood, “It is not so much to realize the presence of Love—but love!” (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Volume II, p. 269). I understood more about the living Christ—that the truth in Christian Science we declare about perfect God and perfect man must be practiced without exception in the human scene. I knew I was winning the battle over the reluctance to be the first in my encounters to practice greater friendliness when I greeted several neighbors walking by the house as I did gardening or chores. A young adult passing my house one day stopped to chat after a hello, and he said, “You are the first person that has talked to me in this neighborhood.” We conversed, and I found out he was a teacher’s aide at the local school. Since I had been a teacher and administrator, and his goal was to teach, this gave us something in common to discuss.

Reformation begins with us, loving our neighbor as ourselves (see Matthew 22:39 ). It involves seeing the true worth of all, in our neighborhood or world. It means “cleaning up” the neighborhood by sweeping up the dirt of selfishness, impatience, or hate in our own thought. 

Do we shake our heads at the profanity we sometimes hear and the bad behavior we see, believing that delinquency is inevitable and perhaps even generational, and isolate ourselves in unfriendliness from individuals that don’t look or act like us? Or do we exemplify grace; that openness, approachability, friendliness, and kindness that heals?

I am happy to tell you I live in a different neighborhood now. Oh, I haven’t moved, but I genuinely like living here now. The taunts from teens stopped. I walk without fear past the park and enjoy meeting each person first with a silent, “Hello, child of God,” then a tangible smile and sometimes a brief conversation. You might enjoy trying this approach in your neighborhood, too.