Across the street from my office is a modest house. It is the immaculately kept home of a woman who was entrusted with the monies of the parish. As bookkeeper she paid the bills, made deposits, and managed the financial affairs. Her fellow members were devastated when it came out that this hard-working and well-respected mother had stolen from the church accounts more than half a million dollars during an eighteen-month period. Authorities discovered that she had given almost every penny of the money to her son, who, in collusion with his wife, spent it on drugs, trips, cars, and extravagance of every sort.

This case has been instructive. It showed how love untempered with wisdom is vulnerable to manipulation.

One thing that stood out to me from this incident was that we have a charge to be what God made man to be. The Bible speaks of man as made in the "image and likeness" of God, but this likeness has been generally understood to be mortal and material. Christian Science understands that the image of God must be like God. And since God is Spirit, since He is Truth, and Life, and Love, this likeness is truthful, perfect, sinless, whole, and entirely spiritual. God didn't make man to be His unlikeness, to be a mortal wrongdoer. We have to prove this fact and work to rid ourselves of what is unlike God so that what is good and true can flourish to His glory.

This change in thought is accomplished by gaining spiritual self-knowledge. Identifying ourselves as God's likeness and living what we know to be spiritually true show forth the man of God's creating. Fraud and deceit are not Godlike qualities and would, if they could, keep us from bringing out our true selfhood as divine image. Trustworthiness is a quality that gives a glimpse of man as God's image and likeness.

All of this brings home the necessity for much self-reliant endeavor to live as the Father's image. We need to demonstrate in all areas of life the expression of the divine ideal in integrity and fidelity. But perhaps in no area is it so important as that involving the trust of others—the trust placed in us as parents, as employers and employees, as husbands and wives, and even as children. Willingness to be faithful to God in bringing out His image and likeness in our thought fulfills that trust. Through thick and thin, through better and worse, this fidelity elevates family, church, and society. This elevation is the deeper purpose of our lives.

And what more can we give to our families than to love them enough to see each as he is in God's eyes? What deeper love can we give our husband or wife than to be wedded to the true idea of man as God's child? Can we serve the Church of Christ, Scientist, better than to be utterly loyal to the spiritual vision of its Founder, Mrs. Eddy? And what greater love could we show others than to do all we possible can to heal discord, envy, and injustice, instead of simply fleeing or complaining? The love that hunkers down for the long haul, even though it might seem easier to give up, reflects reliable, trustworthy love of God. This love gives a glimpse of the man God made in His image, the image of Love.

"Trustworthiness," explains Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, "is the foundation of enlightened faith." There is nothing like the trustworthy representation of God in goodness, Love in kindness, or Life in exuberant vitality, to light up our understanding of God's perfect presence in our lives. If we can be counted on to express God's goodness, wisdom, and lovingkindness (for instance), and know that these are of God and not self-generated, then our faith is solid indeed.

What of our faith if we're faced with a situation that we don't want to deal with? One that calls for qualities we're quite sure we can't express, or don't want to? What of our faith when God doesn't seem to be present at all? Sometimes such a situation is the very means by which we learn untold lessons of God's ever-presence and of the divine power that maintains His image, or reflection.

As a parent I found myself in just such circumstances with one of our teenagers. Our relationship was based more on misunderstanding and distrust than anything else. At one point it was seriously off the track. The temptation was to throw in the sponge and emotionally abandon the child in order to preserve myself. Being a Christian Scientist, I desperately wanted a better sense of motherhood. I needed a more spiritual conception of the children as ideas of God rather than as my human offspring. So I gave myself over to God's comforting motherhood as never before. Time over again, with tears of grief, I sought assurance and direction.

After a bit I saw clearly that I needed to love the child as God did, with no conditions attached, and that I could do it. I determined to love enough to see that what had been so troubling to me (as well as to others) was actually no part of this child as God's image and likeness. I resolved not to condemn or to become angry (or bitter or devastated or sad) no matter what happened. I vowed to keep my thought of this child pure, spiritually honest, and never allow it to perpetuate the claim of error to characterize man as the unlikeness of God. This was a beautiful moment because these resolves were made not out of any spiritual teeth-grinding but out of humility and recognition of the spiritual fact of God's mothering love.

In retrospect, I see that the desire to love this teenager aright was, in fact, being faithful to the motherhood I held in trust for my children. It was the love of the spiritual identity of the child as God's beloved that disallowed any violation of that trust.

While there were some ups and downs until a stable and affectionate relationship was established, the responsibility of parenthood to support (uphold) the children never again came in question. And therein lay the healing: it became more and more important to be faithful to the trust of motherhood as a divine requirement of my reflection of God than to be caught up in my own emotional survival. An unexpectedly wonderful thing happened. My reservoir of love became deeper and deeper, never suffering from drought or depletion. There was always enough love to draw on, for my own as well as for others' needs. So the sponge never was thrown in. The family remains intact.

As our spiritual understanding of motherhood and fatherhood grows, we are freed from stereotypes and find identity, purpose, and fulfillment in the active expression of spiritual qualities that may take a variety of forms, or roles. Finding motherhood and fatherhood as God's reflection opens the role to everyone regardless of marital status and age. It allows the parent to see himself/herself in a broader concept as he or she is being faithful to the demands of parenthood.

The Bible says, "It is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful." This certainly applies to the demands of motherhood and fatherhood. Faithfulness isn't some impossible human ideal of parenting but is a requirement of divine Love. Truth and Love compel honesty and fidelity in God's child, and this is the spiritual basis for fulfilling all that we're entrusted with. Then, as our duty to others becomes devotion to God's purpose, His transforming Spirit is seen to be at work blessing and strengthening us all. When this is faithfully done, the family, the environment, the church, the public good, and the peace of the nations will be secure.