"I am grateful"

[Written Especially for Young People]

THOMAS LOVATT WILLIAMS

Among students of Christian Science there is no phrase more often used than "I am grateful." We hear these words at every testimony meeting, and they occur time after time in the testimonies of healing in the Christian Science periodicals. Surely there must be some very vital reason for the frequent use of these three words.

To be grateful is to be glad. Gratitude goes hand in hand with happiness. The two qualities are inseparable. It can thus safely be said that those who are genuinely saying, "I am grateful," must also be genuinely happy about something.

The truths learned in Christian Science bring healing, and they bring happiness. When these truths are learned and understood, they destroy fear, anxiety, and gloom, and in so doing they also dispel disease and discord of every kind, even as the sunlight dissolves the mists and the darkness. An understanding of God brings freedom from false beliefs, and it is for this understanding that the Christian Scientist is so grateful.

We learn in Christian Science of God as Father-Mother, infinite Love, ever-present and unchanging good; and furthermore we perceive that we are His children, expressing His perfection and loveliness. In this sweet and simple understanding there is no room for the dark dreams of mortal sense. Such divine understanding floods our waking thought with love and light. Is it any wonder that in the beauty of such realization we are glad to speak of God and His kingdom and to say, "I am grateful for these things"?

Jesus once said to his disciples, "Your joy no man taketh from you." He who knows and uses his understanding of God to heal and help mankind is rich beyond words with a peace and joy that cannot be invaded or destroyed, for such a one acknowledges only one power and presence—that of good alone.

The beloved Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, herself demonstrated the correctness of the Master's words. In "Pulpit and Press," she writes (p. 3), "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." In hours of difficulty, when problems seem overwhelming, these words ring out with the assurance of victory; and to act upon them instantly, with alertness and vigor, is to destroy the false claims of evil.

A young student of Christian Science had been in great pain for several days and nights. She lived in the country, where callers were few; there was no telephone, and the nearest practitioner was many miles away. However, another student was staying in the neighborhood and, hearing of the trouble, called on her.

The sufferer remarked very feebly: "I should be so grateful if I could be healed." Her friend at once said, "We don't have to wait; we can be grateful now because we know the truth about ourselves." These words fell on receptive ears. There was silence for about ten minutes, and as the visitor rose to go, the other one also got up from the couch on which she had been lying, and found herself free from the bondage of sickness. In the presence of gratitude for the perfection of God and man, there was no room for either pain or gloom. That evening the student further proved the power of Truth by riding a bicycle to a Christian Science service, eight miles away.

We are grateful as we realize the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 473), "God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power." A test of a Christian Scientist lies in this ability to be grateful at all times, proving that he is realizing the omnipresence of good.

If tempted to be ungrateful or depressed, the alert Christian Scientist can at once turn his thought to this statement (ibid., p. 527): "Man is God's reflection, needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete." Then he may go on his way rejoicing, saying from his heart, "I am grateful."

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