The mother who is a Christian Scientist is blessed beyond measure, for this Science imparts to her a spiritual understanding of the truth of being with which to meet the responsibilities of motherhood and make it a happy and fruitful experience. Mary Baker Eddy writes (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 236), "A mother is the strongest educator, either for or against crime."

To be "the strongest educator" for good in a child's life is a solemn charge and demands, as does every demonstration in Christian Science, the realization and proof within oneself of the truth one would see evidenced. Human character is developed spiritually as one learns that, because God is the only source and creator, He is our divine Mother as well as Father. Everything which God creates reflects and expresses Him, and the qualities which characterize the divine motherhood are therefore reflected by His children. To be a good mother one must first learn something of what it means to be an obedient child of God, to be His image and likeness.

Learning to yield our human will to the divine, we find that the wisdom bestowed by Mind is always adequate for every situation, and that neither we nor those over whom we have a brief stewardship are ever without the unerring control and direction of Truth. It is by ever striving to let our true spiritual nature as children of God be manifest that we become living witnesses to the divine motherhood. As we realize the omnipresence and omnipotence of God, the divine Mother, we are empowered to express the poise of unchanging Principle, the tenderness and compassion of Love, the orderly activity of Life.

The self-discipline which makes for happiness cannot be taught a child by a mother who has not disciplined herself. It is she who must prove the equanimity of Spirit which makes for serenity and cheerfulness. She must prove by her genuine hospitality and friendliness that abstinence from what mortal mind says gives pleasure need not take the fun and refreshment out of living. The mother whose "heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord" (Ps. 112:7), finds that her household is steadied by her calm assurance of God's unfailing protection and care.

The world's thought regarding motherhood is becoming more and more enlightened, and earnest efforts are being made to provide some sort of chart which will anticipate the problems arising during the child's growing-up years and handle them intelligently. Psychiatry and materia medica are offering courses of instruction, and volumes are being written on child education. The Christian Science mother is grateful for every sensible and helpful bit of advice which is handed on by those whose experience has qualified them, but her approach to the development of her children must necessarily be from the basis of the Science of being and the relation of the individual to his Father-Mother, God.

Her reasoning stems always from divine Principle. She knows that what our Leader says on page 69 of Science and Health is true and scientific: "Mortals can never understand God's creation while believing that man is a creator. God's children already created will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being. Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion as the false and material disappears." Here is perfect authority for dismissing as completely fallacious any claims of false material inheritance which the mistaken human mind would term law.

Christian Scientists acknowledge "one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (Eph. 4:6). There is no room for human generations in that oneness of Father and son. What a glorious sense of release comes to the mother who is confident that her child is rich in his inheritance of good and that nothing can be given him which God has not given him.

It is a fortunate child indeed whose mother is not tempted to make comparisons based on the judgments of material reasoning. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 492), "For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence." The spiritual fact is that God's children are not undergoing any process of human development. All that is really taking place is the unfoldment of those spiritual characteristics which enable us to express the one Parent, God. With this recognition of man's inseparable relationship to God constantly before her thought, the Christian Science mother works prayerfully to eradicate the suggestions of mortal mind which would bind a child with temperamental weaknesses, physical disabilities, or faults of disposition. In doing this she rejoices in the knowledge that the child's real selfhood is conceived and maintained by the same Father-Mother God who has created her own true selfhood, and that each of them lives under God's law and obeys His will. Children feel this recognition of their native and inherent dignity and respond accordingly.

A mother who is helping a child to free himself from some inharmony of character or temperament is careful to note it only for purposes of correction. She does not dwell on it verbally or silently any more than she would discuss the symptoms of a disease while correcting the thought which produced it. To correct the errors which seem manifest in a child, we must first rebuke these errors scientifically and separate them in our thought from the child.

The word "discipline" comes from the Latin word meaning disciple, and this derivation furnishes a useful hint in exacting obedience from children. Our motive must be to help them bring their thought into accord with the Principle of being and so become followers of our great Way-shower. If we have faith in the fundamental goodness of children, that goodness which is their birthright as children of God, we can free ourselves from a sense of false responsibility and release them, confident that God, infinite divine Love, will never remove the everlasting arms from around His own.