As Bob walked home from high school through the Fens, he was hardly aware of the bracing New England weather, cloudless and frosty. He was worrying about upcoming exams. They were going to be much longer than the ones he was used to. Some would cover half a year's work; and others, the whole year.

Bob was a sophomore, and until now he had enjoyed high school. He'd been elected secretary of the French Club; he liked sports, especially volleyball; and homework—well, he kept his nose to the grindstone each evening. But lately he hadn't been concentrating very well. He kept thinking about his teachers' warning: everybody's entire future depended on these exams.

Bob was a pupil in the Christian Science Sunday School. Yet for some reason he wasn't using what he had learned of God to help him prepare for the exams. On the morning of the first test, Bob looked and felt awful. He didn't want any breakfast. He couldn't understand how his parents could be so cheerful. They told him calmly that he should go to school and take the exam, and that they would support him through prayer.

That evening Bob and his parents had a chat. "These exams," Dad said, "are part of growing up—part of becoming a citizen. Maybe this is the time for you to think more seriously about your future, and to seek divine Mind's guidance." Then Mom chimed in: "You can't be separated from intelligence, Bob, because you can't be separated, even for an instant, from God, who is the source of intelligence. That's what Dad and I were affirming this morning."

"That's what you meant when you said you d support me through prayer?" Bob asked. "Yes," Mom said. "When you pray, you are listening to Mind—to what Mind is knowing about its own offspring." Bob's older brother, Hank, had graduated a couple of years previously. Dad and Bob looked through Hank's yearbook, and Dad pointed out a sentence in the headmaster's message to the seniors: "The greatest gift we can offer is the gift of ourselves at our best."

"That sounds noble," Bob thought to himself later, "but I've still got to get through these exams." The following Sunday, he could hardly wait to get to Sunday School. His teacher was a graduate student in physics. Feeling sure Mr. Hall must have relied on divine Mind when he took exams, Bob came right to the point: "How can I ask divine Mind for guidance? Can I ask God for the answers to my history test?" "Well, Bob," Mr. Hall said thoughtfully, "divine Mind isn't aware of human history. So we can't ask God when Columbus discovered America. What we can do is to know that we reflect unlimited intelligence. That's because in our true identity we're Mind's spiritual offspring."

Barbara remembered out loud, "This week I was thinking about what it means for me that man reflects infinite Mind and unerring Principle and unchanging Truth." "Thanks for sharing that," said Mr. Hall. "Let's all think along those lines in the coming weeks. I have to be honest with you and say that life is full of instances where everything seems to depend on an exam, a job interview, an audition—or some decision. We may need to be healed of feeling scared or overwhelmed. Then we can remember that God is Love, and that we reflect divine Love. The Bible tells us, 'There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.' ^{I John 4:18 .} We don't have to let ourselves be hypnotized by any problem."

Next Mr. Hall read a passage from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy that was in the Bible Lesson ^{In the Christian Science Quarterly .} : "A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity." ^{Science and Health, p. 128.}

During the next few weeks Bob researched references in Mrs. Eddy's writings to Mind, intelligence, consciousness, and prayer. (It was the first time he'd really used the Concordance.) He gleaned plenty of helpful ideas about his abilities and how he could tackle his personal challenges. He was seeing more clearly that Mind is all-knowing and all-powerful, and that Mind's mandate for its reflection, man, is dominion. Bob copied out one particular passage and kept it on his desk at home. It was from Mrs. Eddy's book Unity of Good: "All consciousness is Mind; and Mind is God,—an infinite, and not a finite consciousness. This consciousness is reflected in individual consciousness, or man, whose source is infinite Mind. There is no really finite mind, no finite consciousness. ... Man, as God's offspring, must be spiritual, perfect, eternal." ^{Un., p. 24.}

Bob found that he kept doing better on each exam that came along. Inspired by spiritual ideas, he stayed alert and confident. One fellow even thanked him for being calm when some of the other students seemed panicky. After his final "final," Bob went skipping along the sidewalk, hopping over the cracks—just the way he used to when he was a little squirt.