HAVE YOU EVER thought you knew exactly what was best for your friends and family and were not shy about telling them? How about forcing things in your own life that perhaps were not in your best interest? I was often guilty of this and quite often met with resistance. Although it's good to be responsible, helpful, and mindful of another's best interests, when help is unsolicited and perhaps intrusive, it may not be good.

My work in the electrical industry provided insight about the right and wrong way of helping others. Part of my job is to see that our customers receive proper voltage. A regulator determines the correct voltage based on the electrical requirements of the customer and then adjusts the voltage accordingly. It took me a while to realize that this is what I was trying to do in the lives of the people around me as well as in my own life—determine what the "requirement" was, and try to arrange for what was needed. I felt I had a good motive. But was it more a need to have things done my way, because I knew what was best?

A physical problem forced me to learn some lessons. There was a lot going on in my life, and I had to make some important decisions. I had prayed for guidance, but was not particularly happy with the answers! I felt a lot of anxiety and pain in the chest, sometimes quite severe. Added to this was fear resulting from a medical diagnosis I'd had many years ago that involved a malfunction of the heart. I had been told that I could expect problems later in life.

I had thought little about this diagnosis since becoming a student of Christian Science several years earlier, and I had never had any further symptoms. I decided now to look up every reference relating to heart in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health. Regarding the function of the heart, Mary Baker Eddy says: "The blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing to do with Life, God. Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind" (p. 151). And as to the purpose of the heart: "We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are" (p.8). These passages gave me a totally new understanding of heart.

As I continued my study, a Christian Scientist friend told me about a story in Miscellaneous Writings, another book written by Mrs. Eddy, involving a prank pulled at her brother's manufacturing mill (see p. 353). A mill worker instructed an unsuspecting new worker to pour a bucket of water every ten minutes on the regulator, which he did, having no idea that this was not part of the normal operating procedure. This provided a lot of amusement for the mill worker. Mrs. Eddy's brother, however, was not amused. Mrs. Eddy explains, "Some people try to tend folks, as if they should steer the regulator of mankind."

This remark awakened me, as did her further counsel about what would actually be helpful. She writes on the following page: "A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God."

This statement caused me to think about what I was doing, and to realize that God is divine Principle, perfectly capable of directing His creation without my help. My job was to gain a clearer understanding of God's government, and to put this understanding into practical daily use. I could see that I needed to express more of the qualities Christ Jesus did—meekness, humility, and unconditional love. I wanted to see the Christ in others, as well as in myself.

I also set aside time each day for the consecrated study of Science and Health and the Bible. This activity enabled me to stop trying to run things and to see divine Principle in action—to see others as well as myself more clearly as the beloved ideas of God, and to trust the government of this unwavering Principle. Recognizing "the right action of the mental mechanism," I had a complete healing of the physical problem.

"Peace, be still," the order that Jesus gave to calm the wind and tumultuous waves (Mark 4:39), comforts me and reassures me that every detail of my life and the lives of others can be safely trusted to the government of the loving and all-powerful divine Principle.