I found joy again
I started thinking about where my happiness comes from. I’ve learned in Christian Science that since God is the only power, the only creator, and only good, qualities such as joy come from God, so they can’t be taken away, even by scary or bad thoughts. My joy could never go away because God is ever present, so the happiness and joy that I express must always be present, too.
Someone shared a scary experience they had been through, and the details frightened me.
One way I like to pray is by thinking about this instruction by Mary Baker Eddy in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “Stand porter at the door of thought” (p. 392).
This means that we can shut the door on bad thoughts when they come to us, because they’re not from God. I realized I needed to be more careful about what thoughts I was letting in.
Whenever the experience I’d heard about came back to thought and made me fearful, I paused and replaced those thoughts with a loving thought from God—something I knew that was comforting and true. I think this is really important, because sometimes we aren’t aware of the thoughts we’re believing. And we don’t realize how much they affect the way we’re feeling throughout the day.
God has given us, His children, the dominion to reject any ungodlike thoughts. Mrs. Eddy explains how: “Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love” (Pulpit and Press, p. 3). Rejecting a thought means we don’t have to listen to it or be scared of it. And since these negative thoughts don’t come from God, they don’t actually have any power anyway, and that’s why we can say no to them and “think and act rightly” instead.
As I continued to “stand porter” with my thoughts, I started to feel a lot happier. It was as if I had been dunked in love and joy—feelings I knew were from God. The story I’d heard no longer affected me, and I felt peaceful.
I am so grateful to God for this healing, and I know that whenever thoughts come into my head that are not from God, I can dismiss them because I have dominion over them. Today, I feel so close to God, which makes me feel very happy!
This experience taught me to stay alert to negative thoughts and make sure to accept only thoughts from God, Love. If you’re struggling with something similar, you too can stand up to those thoughts.