Let’s go up the mountain
There are big mountains where I live. Sometimes I drive on a winding road up, up, up to the top. I can see the beautiful scenery below. I can see the puffy clouds above. It’s still and quiet. It’s a place where I like to think about God’s goodness right there with me.
No matter where you are, you can be still and quiet. You can let your thoughts go up, up, up to feel and know how close God is.
In Christian Science Sunday School, I learned that Jesus let his thoughts go up to God all the time. He knew God, Love, was always with him, and everyone else, too.
Did you know that Jesus was a healer and a teacher? His students were called disciples. He wanted them to understand God the way he did, so his life was all about showing and teaching God’s goodness and power.
One day, Jesus and his disciples went up on a mountain for a lesson. Today we call that lesson the Sermon on the Mount. (You can find it in the book of Matthew in the Bible, in chapters 5–7.) Jesus taught how to act in ways that help us feel close to God, and how natural it is to do that when we feel God’s presence. When we feel close to God, goodness and kindness are like a light shining out from us. That light is a warm happiness that people can feel deep down inside, even though they can’t see it with their eyes.
One of the ways we live that light is by following something Jesus taught called the Golden Rule. It says that you should treat others the way you would like to be treated. (You can find the Golden Rule in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7:12.)
When my daughters were little girls, they learned about the Golden Rule in Sunday School. But sometimes they didn’t get along very well. They forgot about the Golden Rule! If one sister did something unkind to the other, the other would repeat the same unkind thing right back. We called that the “muddy rule,” because it makes people feel like they’re sitting right in the middle of a muddy puddle. It doesn’t make anyone’s thoughts go up high or feel God’s presence. It doesn’t make anyone feel bright or shiny.
You could say that following the “muddy rule” is treating people in a bad way because they treated you in a bad way. But following the Golden Rule is treating people the way you want to be treated even if they don’t treat you in a kind way. Obeying the Golden Rule makes getting along easier, and it also makes everyone happy. That’s what my daughters found when they treated each other kindly and with care.
When you follow the Golden Rule, it shows that you love God, that He loves you, and that God loves everyone else, too. And when you do that, you feel like you’re enjoying the beautiful view from a mountaintop!
