While our son and his friends were celebrating his sixteenth birthday, about twenty students from a neighboring town tried to crash the party. Their own party had been shut down by the police, and apparently they had found out about our party on social media and decided to attend. 

When they didn’t gain admittance, they refused to leave, even though my husband and I asked them politely and firmly several times. We were standing in our driveway, arms outstretched, trying to reason with them, explaining that this was not an open party. As we continued to block them, a sizable group of our son’s friends who were already at the party came to back us up. 

While my husband called the police, I stood between the two groups and prayed.

It was a tense situation. Shouting insults, each group of kids was threatening physical violence if the other didn’t back down. Adding to the chaos was our normally good-natured neighbor, who was brandishing a knife and warning the kids to stay away from his property. Then someone threatened to pistol-whip my husband.

While my husband called the police, I stood between the two groups and prayed. I had recently listened to a Sentinel Watch program on JSH-Online.com in which the speaker had talked about asking God each day what she should pray about (see Deborah Packer, “Prayer: What’s it all about?—Part Two,” October 9, 2023). That had struck a chord with me. I saw the wisdom in doing this, as I am accustomed to turning to our Father-Mother God for solutions. Ever since I was a child, I have found Her to be a constant, immediate source of help with whatever challenge I am facing. 

The advantage of asking God what to pray about before a situation arises is that we have the spiritual inspiration already in thought to deal with a problem when it shows up. We’re less likely to be impressed or influenced by the drama of the moment and, instead of reacting with fear or aggression, can listen to what God is telling us and calmly act upon divine direction. 

A few days prior to the party, I had asked God what I needed to learn that day. “See everyone as a child of God” immediately came to thought. To me this was a reminder that God is the Father and Mother of all and that everyone is created in God’s image and likeness, as the first chapter of the Bible tells us. Therefore, we all possess and express everything that God is. 

In the Christian Science textbook, Mary Baker Eddy gives seven Bible-based synonyms for God: Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth, Love. These words not only “express the nature, essence, and wholeness” of God (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 465) but indicate the nature of God’s children—the qualities we reflect and are looking for in our relationships and lives. For example, if we are created in the likeness of God, and God is Principle, then we are the children of divine Principle. As such, everyone includes order, wisdom, integrity, and the desire to do right. As children of divine Mind, we all possess a consciousness governed by good, impervious to evil suggestions or motives and obedient only to Mind. And as children of divine Love, all reflect kindness, gentleness, patience, humility, and love.

All are children of God, incapable of expressing anything other than their God-given identity.

When that idea to see everyone as a child of God had come to mind, I realized that I needed to actively look for Godlike qualities in everyone—in the driver who cut me off in traffic, in the neighbor who refuses to acknowledge me when I pass by, in government officials, and in friends and fellow church members. I needed to know that all are children of God, incapable of expressing anything other than their God-given identity. 

This didn’t mean that I should ignore or passively accept injustices but that I needed to understand that anything unlike God, good, is no part of anyone’s makeup. 

As the crowd grew larger and more belligerent, I remembered those earlier prayers and realized that these kids, too, were God’s children—those behind me and those in front. I was truly standing among God’s blessed children rather than between two opposing groups. Both were under Love’s protection and guidance. They could not harm or be harmed. I felt no fear, only divine Love surrounding all of us. 

A girl asked me, “How are you going to stop all of us from just pushing past you?”

I answered honestly, “I can’t.” But, I thought, divine Love can. 

At that moment I was led to say, “Listen, this is my son’s sixteenth birthday party, and we just want it to be special. Will you please go home?” 

Someone shouted, “Happy birthday!” And the tension broke. 

One of the out-of-town kids told his friends, “Let’s go home. There is nothing here for us.” And they all turned and walked quietly back to their cars. Just as they were leaving, my husband returned and announced that the police were on their way. By the time the police arrived, it was a nonissue. 

All ended peacefully. As my son’s friends left, they seemed unfazed by the incident, and many of them thanked us for such a fun party. 

I was overcome with gratitude for divine Love’s protection of everyone involved. There had been knife and gun threats, but no violence materialized. I am also grateful for the lesson learned: “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:26).