For most of my life I figured that retirement was something I wouldn’t experience. Gloomy prognostications over the years about the economy and annual inflation weren’t reassuring. However, as conditions at my workplace slowly changed, and as I considered the number of years I had been employed, it seemed time to at least open my thought to the possibility.

As a student of Christian Science, when faced with a challenge, I turn to God in prayer. I begin by affirming my true relation to the one, divine Father as God’s spiritual likeness. I set aside commonly held beliefs about man (everyone) as limited and material—beliefs that define us as the opposite of how God created us.

As we choose a higher, spiritual view, thought becomes more inspired and receptive to unlimited possibilities. I began to think more spiritually about my own identity as that which continually reflects God, Spirit, instead of contemplating the fears and limitations that might accompany a lifestyle change from employed to retired. I focused on the abundance of God’s, infinite Love’s, provision for His children. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy assures us, “Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love” (p. 66).