When the Olympic Games convene in Atlanta, it will be the largest international event of a peaceful nature taking place in the world. The most nations in Olympic history, 197, have been invited to participate, and for the first time, all have accepted the invitation. The global interest is enormous, especially when you take into account the television audience.

Those involved in preparations have called for a worldwide truce from hostilities for thirty days before and after, as well as during the Games.

As a resident of the host city, I have been able to witness the significant news coverage given both daily and in special weekly sections by our local newspaper. Along with extensive preparation of facilities for the many different venues and the enlistment of a large body of volunteers, there remains some concern for security and harmony during the Games. Organizing work to extend a welcome and to communicate understanding and goodwill, to ensure freedom from use of drugs believed to enhance performance, and to provide comfort and safety are all part of the preparations.

This is a real opportunity to support the Olympics with our prayers. While sporting events might not appear of equal importance to ending world conflicts, a closer evaluation reveals great possibilities. Few events on the world stage include peace and goodwill among nations as an official part of the agenda. This event is especially adapted for the demonstration of international friendship. It invites everyone to consider this great truth from the Bible: "Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" (Mal. 2:10)

The foundation of friendship and goodwill among men and women rests on the authority of one Father, one God. The Master, Christ Jesus, knew God as the divine Principle of all, the Principle that is also Love. He understood that God loves all of His offspring, and that man, as God made him, is wholly good. Jesus' birth was heralded with "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2:14). Jesus prayed, taught, and healed on this basis, thus affecting the lives of those around him.

Turning humanity to his example, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes, "Lives there a man who can better define ethics, better elucidate the Principle of being, than he who 'spake as never man spake,' and whose precepts and example have a perpetual freshness in relation to human events?" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 269)

The "perpetual freshness" that Jesus' ministry brings to an event like the Olympic Games is the light of Christ, God's eternal, changeless Truth. For example, Jesus met personal competition among his disciples by turning each of them to God and the fulfillment of His requirements (see Mark 10:35–45). He taught the healing way to deal with enemies (see Matt. 5:21–26, 43–48). He escaped the efforts of evildoers who intended to throw him off a cliff (see Luke 4:28–30).

Our prayers for the Olympic Games naturally turn to the one Father, God. Trusting in His power, we are able to receive the Christly view of our fellow men and women. We claim all that is divinely and eternally true in the spiritual reality that unites us, and we refute the liabilities of mortal discord. We bear witness to that love among God's offspring, manifest humanly as world friendship.

No nationalistic or political agenda is included in the Olympics. Nor is there a racial, ethnic, or religious agenda. No enmity, hostility, or competition of personality is appropriate to the "Olympic spirit" of true friendship. Excellence in sporting competition, meeting on a global stage to foster goodwill and mutual understanding—this is really the business of the Olympic Games.

As Mrs. Eddy explains in Science and Health: "It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established" (p. 467).

Prayer makes spiritual facts more apparent to human thought, helping to dispel materialistic viewpoints. Prayer brings wisdom and harmony to all the preparations and leads to better solutions. It helps eliminate the possibility of chance, overwhelming demands, or accidents. An understanding of God, the divine Principle, Love, dissolves divisiveness, personality conflicts, unhealthy competition, and even centuries-old elements of enmity among humankind.

To expect practical, helpful results from turning to God is realistic. Prayer can embrace the Olympics as the right of humanity to engage in a wholesome and harmonious world event that works to construct more unity among nations. Every opportunity to demonstrate goodwill points to harmony and mutual helpfulness as the necessary and only acceptable standard among nations. Such prayer is the highest possible expression of world friendship.

(Mrs. Schiering is a contributing editor.)