I stopped yelling and prayed

A couple of years ago, I was on the phone with my wireless phone company, and I wasn’t at all pleased. I’d upgraded my service, but the person who set up the new account had made some mistakes that were costing me money. It seemed unfair that I’d have to pay for an employee’s incompetence.

I never used to pray about minor inconveniences like this one. I felt I didn’t want to waste my time on the little things, the everyday annoyances, when bigger issues were screaming for my attention.

Through this experience and others, however, I’ve come to see that the little irritations we encounter are like a low-grade fever. They don’t incapacitate you, but when you shove them aside instead of dealing with them, they can make it harder for you to respond constructively to the bigger issues in your life.

I’ve learned from my study of Christian Science that God doesn’t actually know about our problems at all—big or small. God and the universe He created are spiritual and already perfect, without inharmony of any kind. You and I actually are God’s spiritual creation and are under the protection of His omnipresent goodness. This omnipresent goodness doesn’t favor some and not others; it’s a spiritual law that can be proved in anyone’s life. In fact it has been proved in Biblical times and ever since.

The unusual thing about this law is that it doesn’t cause God to fix our problems as we pray, rather prayer helps us align our thought with God’s established perfection. Mary Baker Eddy affirmed in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other means and methods.” Grace and Truth solve problems? They sure do. Truth is another name for God and grace is divine assistance. There’s no better help available as I found in dealing with the phone company.

At the time, I had a big stack of paperwork that I needed to go through in addition to working out the phone problem. Talking to customer service was taking much longer than I thought it warranted. I’d been transferred from one service rep to another 7 times and even cut off once. Instead of taking the time to cool off, being cut off made me even madder.

I called back and started in with my complaints. The new service representative was cordial, but not at all accommodating. Because I felt so under the gun that morning, I was multi-tasking while on the phone. At the time, I volunteered as an assistant manager at an online support site, and I started to look through the morning’s posts while I was on hold. I came across this simple little poem that I later discovered on many Internet sites:

Happy moments, praise God.
Difficult moments, seek God.
Quiet moments, worship God.
Painful moments, trust God.
Every moment, thank God.

“Difficult moments, seek God” stood out to me. This phone chore was increasingly more difficult. So I finally did what I should’ve done before I picked up the phone to register my problem. I thought “Okay God, what should I do here?” And the first thought I had was “Well, you could be nicer.” While being nice is only common sense, the anger in my body completely dissipated in an instant. I felt different. I’d experienced grace—divine assistance.

I knew deep in my heart that I was better than the crabby behavior I was exhibiting. But it wasn’t just the knowledge that I’m generally a nice person; the frustration over the phone account was getting to me. That had to stop. I’ve thought of myself as God’s offspring ever since I was a little girl. I identify myself often as God’s perfect, spiritual expression and that’s what I did in that moment.

When the service rep got back on the line, I said “I have to apologize for being so unpleasant. I know this isn’t your fault.” He said “Don’t worry. If I were you, I’d be a lot angrier.” We had a good laugh and I had a new ally!

He contacted his boss and was authorized to make all the changes he’d said he couldn’t make during the previous 20 minutes. I was grateful, but more than anything, I was glad to be reminded to go to God in every circumstance.

Being willing to pray whenever we run into problems, no matter how minor, is being as the Bible states, “faithful over a few things...” And being consistent over the small things proves we’re ready to be “…ruler over many things….” It makes sense. We master addition before multiplication, and multiplication before long division. As we put into practice what we know, spiritual understanding grows. We face challenges with more confidence that a positive outcome is inevitable. And we have the spiritual skills to prove it.

Effective methods:

Science and Health
67:23

King James Bible
Matt 25:21