Part of the job I had a while back was doing the dining room laundry.  There were burgundy linens and white linens.  Only the white ones got bleached. One day, I was in a hurry and by mistake I put bleach in the burgundy wash. While folding the linen some time later, I discovered that some burgundy linens had been bleached out.

My first reaction was to hide the ruined linens, put them in the bottom of the pile so no one would find them, and if someone did find them, there would be no one to blame. My second reaction, a better one, was to call the director and tell her what I had done. When I called her, she wasn't upset; she said just to put them aside and they would be used as spare cloths.

That night, when I was thinking about this incident, I thought of Adam and Eve. In this myth, Adam and Eve were told not to eat of a particular tree, but they did anyway. After doing this, their reaction was to feel shame. Then they discovered that they were naked and they hid themselves. When God asked, "Where are thou?", He made them acknowledge the truth about what they had done.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 461:26-27:  "To prove scientifically the error or unrealit of sin, you must first see the claim of sin, and then destroy it." So I needed to acknowledge that I had made a mistake, then set about correcting it, and then move forward.

That weekend we had the grandchildren over for dinner and had an excellent discussion about this incident.

I love the fact that Christian Science encourages us to see our errors, correct them, and then allow God to show us what to do. Then we can progress.

Celia Nygard