Do we accept an accident as something going on "over there" and rejoice that we were not involved? When we are driving along the road and hear a siren, do we shudder and hope we don't have to witness anything unpleasant? Or do we alertly and instantly establish in thought the harmony and control of God's universe, knowing that right where error is claiming an effect—right there—is God, the only cause, in complete control of His own idea?

As the mother of four boys I needed to be clear in my thought on the subject of accidents. At every stage of their experience there was the fear of accident to be dealt with. Sometimes an accident occurred, but always the problem was quickly met through Christian Science. And of course, in countless ways our family was protected and mishaps were prevented.

Through the years I learned to be effective in quickly handling the beliefs of accidents with the children. I realized I couldn't wait until after a mishap had occurred before beginning to know the truth for the child in question. For harmony to result, I discovered that there had to be a consistent application of truth in every situation.

Therefore, for example, if a child throws himself on the floor and kicks and screams for his own way, if he manifests human will and a sense of rebellion, or if selfishness appears to take over his nature—instead of identifying the error with the child, we need to be instantly alert to claim the truth of his identity, refuse to attach the error to him, and see him as the controlled, governed, harmonious idea of God.

If this is faithfully done, then, when any suggestion of accident, inharmony, or emergency presents itself, we can maintain the truth with a calm trust that the harmony of God's controlled child cannot be interfered with. But we should not view the child as material at one hour of the day and expect to be able to see him as spiritual at another time. He is what God knows he is, and has been eternally, and we can know that nothing can interfere with or interrupt perfection nor obstruct our view of it.

We need to decide quickly what to do about error. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "To decide quickly as to the proper treatment of error—whether error is manifested in forms of sickness, sin, or death—is the first step towards destroying error." ^{Science and Health, p. 463;} This is one reason why daily prayer and humble communion with God is so important. To identify ourselves, our children, and indeed everyone—hourly, deeply, and consistently—as being at one with God holds thought in a poised state, ready for instant mental decision and action. The result of this is that evil cannot surprise, shock, dismay, or in any way throw us off our guard. We are also held above a jarring personal reaction when something inharmonious occurs, and the debilitating arguments of self-condemnation, self-justification, self-pity, revulsion, or inadequacy to cope with the situation are annulled.

Christ Jesus' healings recorded in the Bible serve as a wonderfully reassuring testimony to the power of Truth over error. They confirm our faith in the truth of God's control over the entire illusion of evil, and inspire us to prove this for ourselves. "And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people." ^{Matt. 4:23;}

Jesus proved conclusively that God is the only cause. This is an important point in dealing with the problem of accident. The belief of an accident occurring cannot set up a cause for error. But the suggestion is aggressive, because error often claims a very specific cause and a very specific effect.

An accident is an aggressive mental suggestion of error, not a physical fact, therefore it can and must be corrected mentally. In our prayerful mental work we can know that no aftereffect, such as shock or delayed reaction, can manifest itself. Medical belief would claim these results and also would claim that a healing takes time and involves a necessary process. No medical influence or prevailing belief in world thought can interfere with the power of God or touch His unassailable and safe child.

God's man is never subject to chance, to mortal mind's prognostications of disaster. Weather, carelessness, freakish phenomena, superstition—nothing can interfere with God's ceaseless, perpetual, harmonious control of His own creation.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy gives us a wonderfully practical statement that our family has used consistently in meeting the thought of accident. She says, "We cannot in reality suffer from breaking anything except a moral or spiritual law." ^{Science and Health, p. 381.} Here is provable exemption. When an accident occurs, we can ask ourselves: Has a moral or spiritual law been broken in this situation? If not, we can prove at once that as God's controlled and governed child we cannot be made to suffer. And if it has been broken, the penalty lasts only until the debt is paid and the sin forsaken.

Even when evil has claimed to bring about its suggestions of chance and an accident has appeared to occur, we can still gain dominion through God's power. The ultimatum of authority is always with God, not with error, and His law is in complete control and will wipe away every discordant effect that presents itself as we apply it to the situation. No scar, physical or mental, can be left to remind us of the lie.

This fact was proved practically by my husband. He had sustained an injury to his knee playing football, and although the condition was largely healed through Christian Science treatment, still there was a lingering weakness in the knee. This hampered him greatly in playing the sports he loved, but he learned to live with it and accepted it as an effect from an injury he vividly remembered. One day, in working with the statement of Mrs. Eddy's just quoted, he mentally rose in rebellion at the imposition of this lingering disability. He reasoned that no law of God had been broken on the football field, and therefore it was unnecessary and unjust for him to continue to suffer. He held firmly and prayerfully to this statement of divine law, and the result was that before long the healing was complete. He has been more active than ever before in strenuous sports, without the slightest ill effect.

How wonderful to know that we are never helpless victims of chance, but always completely in control of our experience, through knowing and demonstrating God's authority with us! We can claim our exemption from accidents and chance through intelligent prayer, and the thoroughness of the law of God wipes out the mental and physical record of accident in our lives. We can learn to rise instantly and positively to counter with truth any least suggestion of error's claim of chance, manifested as accident or in any other way. This not only enables us to prove our own dominion and exemption but benefits our brother man, because it disproves, at least in a measure, the world's concept of the necessity and inevitability of accident.