Article June 2, 2014 Issue

Lifeguarding prayers

Sidney Fox

Last summer I knew I wanted to work as a lifeguard at a local pool—so I took an intensive lifeguarding course as soon as summer break began. I spent 30 hours over the span of a week learning everything I needed to know in order to receive my lifeguard certification. Just a few days after completing all the requirements, I was hired to work at a pool nearby. I was really excited to start because I would be putting all the skills I had learned into real life practice!

But then, the night before my first day of work, I started feeling extremely nervous. In spite of my training, I doubted that I really had what it takes to rescue and save someone if the necessity arose. I was worried that if someone actually started drowning I would be so scared that I would forget how to rescue them.

I spent that night feeling really uneasy, and even considered not going in to work at all. Then the idea came to me to read some of that week’s Christian Science Bible Lesson, which was titled “God the Preserver of Man.” The Golden Text read, “The Lord guards you…. The Lord will protect you from all dangers; he will guard your life” (Psalms 121:5, 7, New Century Version). How applicable that passage was to my situation! My thought was now more at ease.