Will I have to study all night?
The summer before my junior year of high school was filled with horror stories. Friends who were now seniors kept telling me how difficult my classes were going to be and how they’d had to pull all-nighters to finish all the homework teachers had assigned. That did not sound like the kind of year I wanted to have.
To be honest, I did spend some of my summer worrying. But I also spent time praying—asking God to help me with whatever challenges I might face in the year ahead. I wanted to do well in school, but I also didn’t want to have to stay up all night studying!
When I raised the issue with my Christian Science Sunday School teacher, she suggested that I look at the upcoming year from a different perspective. Instead of praying to get all As, I could see my schoolwork as a way to glorify God.
I wanted to do well in school, but I also didn’t want to have to stay up all night studying!
It can often seem like school is all about our efforts and how well we’re doing, so this would be a shift in approach for me. Instead of focusing on my personal efforts, I could see the upcoming year as an opportunity to demonstrate all the gifts God has so freely given me and all of my classmates.
My Sunday School teacher went on to explain that in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy tells us that another name for God is Mind and that we are God’s—Mind’s—creation. Well then, I reasoned, I can glorify Mind by demonstrating intelligence and wisdom in everything I do. God is infinite good, so I could find unlimited ways to show this in my life, including in school and studying.
I also thought about the fact that, while keeping up with homework often means working hard, God’s intelligence doesn’t need all-nighters to be expressed; it is always present and immediate. My Sunday School teacher directed me to a part of Science and Health that defines Mind as God, “of whom man is the full and perfect expression” (p. 591). I could see how this meant that I couldn’t be limited in any way.
Armed with these good thoughts, I started my junior year excited to tackle the challenges ahead. But as the months passed, the workload increased, and I forgot some of the ideas I had prayed with over the summer. I began to feel that in order to keep up with the mountains of homework for all my classes, I had to study many hours each night, without time for much else.
I stuck pretty rigidly to a rigorous study schedule, until one afternoon when a friend told me she was having a hard time. She asked if she could come over after school so we could talk. At first, I hesitated, thinking of all the homework I had to finish that night and a history test I had to study for. But thankfully, I could feel God guiding me to answer, “Of course you can come over.” Another friend joined us as well. We hung out until fairly late in the evening, talking and laughing. By the time they left, we all felt a little lighter.
We had spent a little time looking over our history notes together. But I was tempted to think I hadn’t put in an adequate number of study hours and that I might have to stay up late. Again, a very clear sense came to me, which I knew was from God, that nothing more needed to be done. God didn’t need a certain number of hours of study in order to be expressed. I went to bed—and ended up scoring 100 percent on the next day’s history test—my only perfect score of the year.
Letting God take the lead rather than rigidly sticking to my own ideas of how to study was a turning point for me.
Letting God take the lead rather than rigidly sticking to my own ideas of how to study was a turning point for me that year. It showed me how to trust God with everything I needed to do and not be inflexibly tied to an hours-long homework schedule. I approached the remainder of junior year in a more balanced way and did well in all my classes, while also maintaining friendships and participating in sports. I never once had to pull an all-nighter!
I was very grateful to God for giving me this needed reminder, which I have referred back to many times in my life, whenever I have been tempted to hold on to my to-do lists instead of what God is leading me to do.
