When we are faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem, it's only too easy to let discouragement or resentment take over. Then we may think or say, "Oh, what's the use? There's nothing I can do about it," or even "It's all so-and-so's fault."

We should be alert to deny such statements, including unspoken ones, whether they concern us or others. These thoughts are aggressive mental suggestions tempting us to believe there can be troubling situations that defy solution.

In her book Unity of Good Mrs. Eddy writes, "We undo the statements of error by reversing them." ^{Un., p. 20;} I found this sentence most helpful in solving a business problem of nearly three years standing.

My husband and I had bought two valuable books from a local supplier. These were published by a highly reputable overseas concern that had a representative in our city. To our dismay, after a few months the books started to break up. Both copies were returned to the local representative, who expressed regret and admitted that the books were part of a faulty edition. He assured us that full recompense would be made, but said his overseas principals would have to be consulted. So began a long series of polite postponements and vague promises that came to nothing.

After a time, I'm afraid, we allowed our better judgment to become clouded by annoyance and supposedly righteous indignation. We found ourselves saying things like: "We might as well forget it" and "He won't do anything about it now. It's too late."

Finally my husband drafted a polite but firm letter to this man, which I was to type and send. That draft lay on my desk for about ten days because I kept putting off typing it. At last I realized that I simply could not send the letter without first setting my mental house in order.

At this time I came upon that sentence from Unity of Good: "We undo the statements of error by reversing them." I realized I must reverse whatever erroneous notions I held and replace them with the truths of God and man I'd learned in Christian Science. Right away I wrote down what I believed to be "the statements of error," and then below each one I set down what I considered the nullification of it by reversal. Here is a summary of what I came up with:

Concerning the local representative:

Statement of error: This individual is incompetent and neglectful of his duty.

Reversal: Spiritual man is ever conscious of his God-appointed duty and fulfills it diligently. As God's likeness, man reflects and expresses Him in every aspect of his being.

Statement of error: The representative's whole attitude is one of "couldn't care less."

Reversal: Man is God's idea, the expression of divine Love. God cares for all His children, and man, His child, reflects God's caring.

Statement of error: This salesman's behavior is deceitful, dishonest.

Reversal: The real man, governed and motivated by his divine Principle, God, is wholly upright in all his ways. Truth identifies all its own ideas with absolute integrity.

Concerning us:

Statement of error: We are victims of injustice.

Reversal: Perfect justice is an attribute of God, divine Mind, and as God's spiritual ideas we are beneficiaries of that justice. The Bible says of God, "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." ^{Deut. 32:4;}

Statement of error: Time is against us.

Reversal: Actually there is no time. Time is an unreal concept of mortal mind. God's man knows only an eternity of unfolding good.

Statement of error: We will probably lose financially. At best there might be partial settlement.

Reversal: Under divine law man has all that rightfully belongs to him as God's reflection. He cannot be deprived of any good thing by chance or duplicity.

These were just some of the thoughts that came to me as I mentally reversed the arguments in this case.

Of course, this list was only a temporary aid, a kind of argument, to lift my thought to the truth of being. This reversal and affirmation might well be instantaneous—without process, argument, or list.

When I felt the truth of my arguments, and not until then, I typed and sent the letter. Freed from the shackles of human opinions, I was content to trust the whole matter to God. The results were spectacular. Within three weeks, and under entirely congenial circumstances, full reimbursement was made for the original price of the two books. Very soon afterward, we were able to buy new and better copies from another source at no extra cost.

Whatever material sense argues is merely a counterfeit of spiritual reality. We can reverse the counterfeit and affirm the original, which is forever existent in divine Mind. Mrs. Eddy writes: "Truth is affirmative, and confers harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this simple rule of Truth, which governs all reality." ^{Science and Health, p. 418.}

Studying the Christ Science, we learn that nothing is real but the good and that discord of every kind, being unreal, a statement of error, must yield to the affirmative action of Truth.