I had been trying to get a part-time job. I went on interviews, but didn't get any job offers. I felt discouraged. Then I remembered an incident from a few years ago.
One morning I went into our garage to get the car and found a little bird caught in the garage. The garage had a window that didn't open and the bird kept hitting the window. It seemed obvious to the bird that this was the way to freedom. I opened the garage door and prayed to know that the bird would feel God's direction. Finally, it did fly out the door to freedom. I've thought of this when I've thought a certain path was the way to go, but it wasn't. I needed to listen to God's directive.
The Psalmist says (Ps. 16:11): "Thou wilt show me the path of life; in thy presence is fullness of joy, at thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore." Mary Baker Eddy echoes this in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (p. 254:10): "When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path."
I did find the right job. I'm so grateful to Christian Science for its continuous encouragement to find the right path.
C. N. Williamsport, Pennsylvania, United States
Burn Healed
While taking hot cooked cereal out of the microwave, I spilled it on my fingers. I condemned myself for being so stupid. It was quite hot, and the area around my wedding ring quickly became red and blistered. I removed the ring. The thought came to pray. Then I thought: "This is a small thing--I can just tough it out and deal with the pain in other ways, such as forgetting about it and ignoring it."
Then I recognized this as a false suggestion that some problems are too serious to pray about and others are too small to pray about. At that point I did reach out to God, divine Love. I realized that the burn wasn't the problem, but that the condemnation of myself was what needed healing.
God, Good, created all and He could only make that which is good. Condemnation isn't good so He could not have made it. Since God didn't make it, it just ISN'T.
The burn and the condemnation were lies, no more true than 5+5= 7. I cleaned up the counter, oven, and floor, and chuckled to myself that they had needed cleaning anyway! I put my ring back on and in several hours all evidence of the incident was gone.
Some might say that having a high pain threshold and time would have had the same effect. But I feel blessed to have approached this problem with prayer because it gave me a little more insight into the fact that God never made condemnation and that no problems are too big or too small for God. A six foot high zero has no more validity than a six inch zero. "There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." (Romans 8:1)L. E. Centre Hall, Pennsylvania, United States