At every moment God’s love is present with us. There are times when we may feel that presence so powerfully that our expression of that love overflows to others, and at other times, we may feel another’s expression of love touch us. And yet sometimes it may seem difficult to feel that love. 

During those times, the Bible’s guidance is such a powerful help. “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him” (I John 4:16). As we learn to dwell in that love—to keep our thoughts filled with Love—we cannot help feeling Love’s powerful embrace. It may take persistence, but the blessings are enormous.

When my husband and I were first married, it seemed that his family had some questions about his choice of a wife, one of which was my religion, Christian Science. I knew that talking about it wouldn’t really help, but living it was of prime importance. My husband’s father had been killed during World War II, leaving his young wife with four children to raise. Because of this tragedy, my mother-in-law lost her faith in God and decided that the family would no longer attend church. She was a very strong woman and seemed to put up a shield, which is understandable. 

My heart went out to her, and I endeavored to see her as God’s child, loved and loving. This took much diligence, as I learned that she had taken a lot of things out on my husband when he was a child since he was the oldest son in the family.

I prayed to know that God was actually the only Mind governing our family.

At the beginning of our marriage she was often critical of me, making my transition far away from home difficult, as I had come from such a loving family. She tried to make many decisions for us, from the apartment we rented to the blender we purchased, and she’d become very angry if we didn’t follow her wishes. We had to balance appreciating her wisdom with our desire to be independent and make our own choices. I prayed to know that God was actually the only Mind governing our family and that we were all obedient to His will, rather than seeing several minds in conflict. 

I’ll always be grateful for the wonderful support and love from my husband during this time. I often thought about wearing a “raincoat of Love,” and not letting any hurtful thoughts touch me. Above all I remained grateful to her for giving me my wonderful husband, and I focused on her spiritual qualities such as strength, integrity, intelligence, and kindness to others.

I was still in college when we were married, and as soon as I graduated, an opportunity for us to live abroad opened up, giving us time to establish our own ways. When we returned four years later, we had two children, and my mother-in-law seemed to have very strong ideas on how to raise them. We always took into consideration her experience in raising four children, but we turned to God to follow His guidance for our decisions.

At this time I was aware that she had a severe drinking problem. Members of her family had tried to intervene with no success. She lived nearby, and we visited her often, but it was very upsetting to see this intoxicated behavior. I knew that prayer was the best way for me to address this. I continued to see her as God’s child and to express love to her. 

Mary Baker Eddy’s guideline in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was so helpful: “The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love” (p. 201). I endeavored to do this by dwelling on the fact that she was created by and deeply loved by God. 

In addition, I prayed to find other practical ways to express love and soon learned that she loved homemade soups. So every week I would take her some soup along with a few other homemade items. As I persisted in holding to God’s love and seeing her true nature as His child, she gradually became friendlier and more accepting of me.

One morning there was a very difficult scene with the drinking, and it happened to be the day before my Christian Science students’ association meeting, which is an annual inspirational meeting of pupils who have had instruction in Christian Science with a particular teacher. I was so shaken by the situation I’d seen that I was afraid it would spoil my peace for the meeting the next day. 

I was completely at peace, filled with a sense of God’s love for her and for me. 

I reached out in prayer, and the thought came—Don’t try to change the human situation; just see the child of God. In that moment, all the years of prayer brought me to a deeper and clearer realization of God’s perfection, and of her perfection as His child. 

I felt the presence of the Christ; I was completely at peace, filled with a sense of God’s love for her and for me. I felt relieved of any personal responsibility for her well-being as I knew that she was truly in God’s care. The next day I went on to have a beautiful day of inspiration at my association meeting.

When I returned, I found out that that morning she had passed out and was taken to a hospital, where her daughter explained the situation to a doctor. As a beautiful testament to her God-given inner strength, my mother-in-law never had another drink after that moment. I know other family members had been praying as well, and it was a brilliant example of God’s great love for her and of her true identity in His likeness.

Our relationship continued to be more loving. She never let me talk about God in our conversations, but toward the end of her time here, I decided to write her a letter sharing my thoughts. She always had two or three rescue dogs and loved them deeply. So I shared that her love for those dogs just hinted at God’s great love for her. 

Since God is Love itself, He had never caused war (which had seemed to greatly affect her family), and it was only men’s disobedience to Him that would allow that. I mentioned the spiritual qualities she expressed, and that she was His dearly loved daughter and would be throughout eternity. She never mentioned the letter, but her daughter said that she always kept it on her night table. 

Before she left, she wrote me a beautiful letter saying that I was like a daughter to her. So I felt as if the difficult years had been erased. And I am so deeply grateful that we both shared several years of joy and love as a result of persistence in holding to divine Love’s beautiful, ever-present care.

That same Love is constantly embracing each of us—in our families, our communities, and in our world. We can realize our inherent oneness with our heavenly Father and, therefore, with each other.