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September 7, 2021
Me, creative?
“I am not creative!” I thought to myself one day after school. My English teacher had just assigned our high school class a project that we had to present in a fresh and creative way. Many of the other students had interesting and original ideas, but I had zero.
Days passed, and I had no idea what I was going to do. I started to get anxious. I didn’t like doing my homework at the last minute. The truth is, I felt I had other talents, but creativity was not one of them.
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One day I suddenly had an idea: Why don’t you pray about this? It wasn’t the first time I had prayed, but it was the first time I had prayed without the supporting prayers of my mom or another Christian Scientist. At the time, I was attending the Christian Science Sunday School at my local Church of Christ, Scientist, and loved what I was learning about prayer. I was learning that prayer doesn’t ask God for something that we think we lack, such as a quality like creativity or health. Prayer acknowledges that God is our Father-Mother and has infinite qualities that we reflect and express as His likeness, and that God did not create any of His children lacking in some qualities. We express God completely, and so we are complete.
I was also learning that there are seven synonyms for God, and one of them is Soul. Soul includes qualities like ingenuity, innovation, and yes, creativity. Since God’s sons and daughters naturally reflect and express all of the qualities of Soul, I was creative!
I felt I had other talents, but creativity was not one of them.
Another synonym for God is Mind, and a quality of Mind is intelligence. Mind gives us all of the ideas we need and would give me the right ideas for this project, so I didn’t need to worry or feel anxious. Mary Baker Eddy, who founded Christian Science, explains, “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 307). I could trust God and listen patiently for His guidance.
Soon after praying, a very creative idea about how to present my project came to mind. It was not something that had come from me, as it was somewhat unconventional. I got to work immediately, thanking God for the incredible inspiration. When it came time to present the project, my teacher and classmates were very impressed, and I received an excellent grade.
This experience taught me the importance of voicing what’s spiritually true, and not saying that I don’t have a certain quality, or that I’m not good at something. That’s the same as saying that God is lacking something, which is impossible because God is all-knowing, all-wise, and is the inexhaustible source of all that is good.
The possibilities of what we can accomplish are unlimited and our blessings infinite, when we understand that our abilities come from God and are not our own.
It has been a number of years since this took place, but I continue to benefit from the lessons I learned. Even while writing this article, I had the thought come that it was going to be difficult to organize the different ideas and develop them into something that would be helpful. But then I remembered I had already demonstrated that I have every quality that’s necessary for the task in front of me. It was a joy to see the ideas and words coming together naturally and harmoniously as a result.
The possibilities of what we can accomplish are unlimited and our blessings infinite, when we understand that our abilities come from God and are not our own. We can confidently say, “I express the ingenuity and originality of Soul and the intelligence of Mind. I am creative!”