Article January 18, 2016 Issue

Negative pronouncements—powerless

Blythe Evans

Remember the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty”? Briefly, as the king and queen introduced their baby daughter at a royal banquet, six woodland fairies gave their blessings until an uninvited fairy unexpectedly showed up. She was angry and jealous. As her “gift,” she pronounced the princess would eventually prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. But there was one more fairy in attendance who hadn’t yet given her gift. She was able to find a way for the negative pronouncement to be reversed. Adventure ensues, and, of course, there is a “happily ever after.”

Now, fairy tales are only fairy tales, but as I read this story to a little friend recently, it sparked my interest in an unusual way.

It occurred to me that mortal mind, or the unreal mentality that is unlike God, divine Mind, would sometimes present threatening pronouncements to us, even while we are rejoicing in a “banquet” of spiritual inspiration. After we’ve felt blessed by uplifting inspirations from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, an intruding thought might say that they are all well and good, but so-called material law could overpower that good and prevail. Mortal mind could even suggest that we might not be able to find healing or accomplish our life purpose. But how reassuring to know that staying steadfast in our conviction that God is All, we can address these false predictions properly and learn they have no more reality than a fairy tale.

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