A neighbor (I’ll call her Jane) and I had arranged to meet one Saturday. Over time we had not seen eye to eye on a variety of subjects, and I was upset by some of her behavior and attitudes. She, too, wanted to talk with me about how she perceived my behavior.

I don’t particularly enjoy encounters like these, but at the same time, I felt our relationship was important to both of us, so it was important to clear the air. To prepare for this meeting, I needed some guidance and, as is my custom when undertaking anything meaningful, I turned to God for inspiration. As I have learned from my study of Christian Science, divine Mind—another name for God—is always present and all-powerful. One of the qualities of Mind is intelligence; as God’s children, we are expressions of Mind and therefore express intelligence in any situation. 

The day of our meeting, I read, as I do most Saturdays, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus charges us to agree with an adversary while we have the opportunity to do so (see Matthew 5:25). Although I didn’t really think of Jane and me as adversaries, I thought it best to deal with this situation before it came to that!