In a bad mood?
Originally appeared online in the teen series Trending - October 15, 2024.
One morning I woke up really tired. It felt like I’d hardly slept at all.
I’d been working on a project that required me to look into a microscope every day for several hours, and I wasn’t looking forward to another day of it. I was expecting it to be long, tedious, and tiring. In short, I was grumpy. I was also stressed about getting a late start. Feeling grumpy and stressed was a really bad way to start the day.
Once I got to the lab and got my slides set up under the microscope, I looked for something to listen to while doing my work. I usually listen to audiobooks, podcasts, or music, since listening to something helps with the monotony. That day, I decided to listen to an episode of the Sentinel Watch podcast. I wanted something more than just entertainment; I wanted spiritual inspiration, and I’d been inspired by Sentinel Watch episodes in the past.
Feeling grumpy and stressed was a really bad way to start the day.
The episode I tuned in to was about finding hope. The guest explained that each morning she listened to the weekly Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly. She also prayed on the way to her job to know that she could hear God’s messages throughout the day, express His qualities—such as focus, intelligence, joy, and a sense of purpose—and observe His activity in her day. This idea really caught my attention. It made me realize that by dwelling on my feelings of grumpiness, I was acting as if God was not part of my day, and as if I was separate from God.
There are two ideas from the Bible that have helped me understand that I can’t be separated from God. The first is that we are all made in God’s image and that everything God made is good (see Genesis 1:27, 31). To me this means that I am the reflection of this all-good God. God is good, the source, and I am inseparable from this goodness as its effect.
The other idea is the last line in the Lord’s Prayer, “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever” (Matthew 6:13), with its spiritual interpretation in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures: “For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All” (Mary Baker Eddy, p. 17).
When I put the two ideas together, I understood that since God made everything good, including me, there is no place where grumpiness can even exist. And because God is All, I must always be with God. There is no outside to All!
I understood that since God made everything good, including me, there is no place where grumpiness can even exist.
As I thought about these ideas, I felt lighter, freer, and happier. I was able to complete my work with a sense of accomplishment while listening to more inspiring Sentinel Watch episodes as well as audio versions of a few issues of the Sentinel.
I was so grateful for this realization that because we are all God’s loved children, none of us has to accept or tolerate a situation that seems to be lacking good. Instead, we can pray by knowing that God is infinite good, so there is no room for anything that feels like good’s opposite. And the more I hold this fact of God’s goodness in my thoughts, the more I see and experience it in my daily activities.
We are always held in God, good, and knowing this brings lightness, peace, and joy to our days.