Thursday, August 20, 2009
O’ God, change me so that I can love them better!
I pray for my kids everyday. I pray for other people’s kids everyday. I pray that they feel, hear, and know God’s love. I pray that they see God and follow His path. I pray that they know themselves the way God knows them.
But the most important prayer that I pray is quite simple – “O’ God, change me so that I can love them better.” Change me! Not them, me.
Train Up That Child!
So often parents get caught up in trying to make children behave a certain way or do a certain thing. And this is extremely important and valuable – after all, the Bible says “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). Or as the New Living Translation says it, “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.”
But notice how the verse says “in the way he should go” or “onto the right path.” Parents aren’t training children in “where” to go but in “how” to go. It’s a path to walk down – a way of living, a way of being. In order to be on the right path, we should train our children to follow God’s lead – not our’s. In fact, the change we must be willing to make is to convert from trying hard to be a good parent to trusting God to be the best Parent to all of His children, listening and being willing to follow His guidance.
Don’t make them angry!
A man I know was having a little trouble relating to his young son. When his son was born, he read a lot of parenting books that were recommended by people he trusted – either friends or national figures whose opinions he respected. This was helpful, but by the time his son was seven or eight, it was clear that they had different interests, different tastes, and different ways of doing things.
It wasn’t a bad situation. In fact, the differences were quite minor considering what some families go through, but it was frustrating nonetheless. My friend didn’t want to live his life in constant frustration, but more importantly he didn’t want his son to know his dad as a frustrated person or as a source of frustration.
He came across an important verse in the New Testament. It reads “Fathers, don't make your children angry. Instead, train them and teach them the ways of the Lord as you raise them” (Ephesians 6:4, The New International Reader's Version [NIrV], also called the Adventure Bible for Young Reader’s).
Then he came across a similar verse in Colossians 3:21. “Fathers, don't make your children bitter. If you do, they will lose hope” (NIrV).
Finally, he discovered another verse that described the way a father should treat his children. I Thessalonians 2:11-12 read, “You know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children. We gave you hope and strength. We comforted you. We really wanted you to live in a way that is worthy of God. He chooses you to enter his glorious kingdom” (NIrV).
Change me!
This led him to believe that he needed to love his son better – but to do this required being more humble. He needed to live the way he wanted his son to live. So, in order to fix things, he needed to change.
This led him to the following very simple prayer – “O’ God, change me so that I can love better.” He didn’t ask for God to change his son – God made the boy in His image, in His likeness. Instead he asked God to change him so that he could better love what God created – so that he could see the beauty, goodness, and holiness God created.
Try saying this prayer each morning for a week, and see how it changes your life.
It changed mine – I’m that father. Within just a couple of days, I started loving my son better. The frustration left and the loving took over. And I found that we actually had a lot of things in common. I’m sure those things were there all along, but I couldn’t see them.
The Comforter is here
What is the Comforter? And has it come? This week’s Bible Lesson, titled “Christian Science,” explains how “Christian Science and Christianity are one” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 372, cit. 5), and how together they are the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise before he was crucified, “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” (John 14:16).
The Greek word translated “Comforter” in most Bible translations is paracletos, and describes an advocate, or someone who is called to your side to help you. The Amplified Bible gives a thorough translation of John 14:26 (citation 5) that sheds a great deal of light on the word “Comforter”: “But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. And He will cause you to recall (will remind you of, bring to your remembrance) everything I have told you.”
This Lesson’s resounding message is that our Advocate is here today—and what an Advocate we have!
The Responsive Reading provides the first hint as to what the rest of the Lesson brings. These unique verses come from one of the first English translations of the New Testament, made by John Wycliffe in 1380, nearly 230 years before the King James Version was completed. With the assistance of scholars from Oxford University, the spelling and punctuation of Wycliffe’s translation have been updated for today’s readers. What stands out when reading these verses is the phrase “science and health,” which appears in these lines from the Gospel of Luke: “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest. For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord for to make ready his ways, for to give science and health to his people into remission of their sins” (Luke 1:76, 77).
Mary Baker Eddy’s major work is titled Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and in her Message to The Mother Church for 1902, she described the first time this Wycliffe passage was brought to her attention—several months after she had given her book that title (see pp. 15–16).
The second section of this week’s Lesson includes passages from the book of Revelation, which is filled with prophecies, and includes one about a woman who is “clothed with the sun” and who gives birth to a boy who will “rule all nations” (Rev. 12:1, 5, cit. 8). One translation speaks of his shepherding all nations. These citations point toward Mrs. Eddy’s discovery in 1866 of what she called “the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love” (Science and Health, p. 107, cit. 9). She understood that these laws of God constituted a “Christian system of healing disease” that could be used and applied by everyone (p. 150, cit. 20). These laws constituted the Comforter or Advocate that Jesus promised would come. Science and Health explains these laws, which Mrs. Eddy said would lead “into all truth,” in fulfillment of the prophecy in Revelation (p. 127, cit. 10).
During the years between her discovery and the publication of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy sought to learn more about God and His laws, and to demonstrate these laws for others. She taught her first student, began giving talks on her discovery, and healed a number of people, including the famous American poet John Greenleaf Whittier of lung disease (see Pulpit and Press, p. 54). She considered Science and Health so important that she said that all Christian Scientists, and the individuals who came to them for help, should have a copy (see p. 456, cit. 14).
The Lesson explains that when prophecy is fulfilled, it doesn’t mean that there’s nothing left to do or say. Quite the contrary. It means the beginning of something. Mrs. Eddy expected that readers of her book would prove for themselves that the prophecy is being fulfilled (see Science and Health, p. 547, cit. 16). When the Advocate frees you—from sin, sickness, or any other difficulty—you become the “light of the world” (Matt. 5:14, cit. 15), and you use your new understanding of God’s laws to show others how to free themselves. You give up your old ways of thinking and acting, and follow the Advocate’s counsel.
This week’s Lesson shows how the Bible’s prophecies are being fulfilled by Christian Science and its textbook. It explains that the Comforter or Advocate is here. That it’s not a secret. And that it’s for everyone.
Ben Gladden lives in Framingham, Massachusetts, with his wife and their three children.
God’s protection—every day
This week’s Bible Lesson, “God the Preserver of Man,” explains how God preserves His people in well-doing and meets their needs. This is evidenced in the powerful and frequent healings recorded in the Bible.
“From beginning to end,” says Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “the Scriptures are full of accounts of the triumph of Spirit, Mind, over matter. Moses proved the power of Mind by what men called miracles; so did Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha” (p. 139, Section I, citation 2). The Bible teaches that the events of history demonstrate a principle, or law, of the universe, not a benevolent or partisan God who hands out favors to a select few.
The Scriptures are full of people who inspire and lead by example. This Lesson mentions many of them—both well-known and less-familiar. In each instance, these Bible characters were able to overcome challenging circumstances by relying on God’s law.
About 50 to 70 years after Jesus ascended, a letter was written to Jews who had become Christians, which is today called the Epistle to the Hebrews. The author of this epistle looks back on some of these inspiring Old Testament “heroes” and records some of their great deeds.
The first section of the Lesson provides a brief list of their names and accomplishments. Most significantly, we’re told, they were good people who trusted in the Lord (see Ps. 37:3, cit. 2). Through faith these people “subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, [and] waxed valiant in fight” (Heb. 11:33, 34, cit. 3). For me, they prove Mary Baker Eddy’s statement “The divine Mind that made man maintains His own image and likeness” (Science and Health, p. 151, cit. 4).
These figures include Gideon, Barak, and Jephthah. As I researched further, I discovered the depth of their reliance on God’s protecting power.
Gideon (or Gedeon, as the book of Hebrews spells the name)
Every seven years, around harvest time, Midianite raiders swarmed into Israel to steal the harvested food. An angel directed Gideon, an Israelite, to lead a resistance against the Midianites. So he assembled an army of 32,000 men. Through a series of tests, God directed Gideon to reduce the number of men to just 300 soldiers. Gideon learned to rely on God completely. With this small group of men, Gideon defeated the Midianite army.
Barak
Thirty or 40 years before Gideon led his rebellion against the Midianites, Barak and Deborah led a similar rebellion against the Canaanites, who had threatened the Israelites for 20 years. Deborah commanded Barak to raise an army of 10,000, but the Canaanites had 900 chariots plus thousands of men. Yet, something happened at the beginning of the battle that caused the chariots to become stuck in the mud and the Canaanites to become disoriented. Some scholars suggest it was a sudden rain storm. Again, there was evidence of God’s law at work, when the Israelites won.
Jephthah (or Jephthae, as the book of Hebrews spells the name)
After the Israelites left Egypt and settled in Canaan, the Ammonites, in what is now Jordan, attempted to recapture some of the land that the Israelites had taken. Through the prayers of Jephthah, the Israelites were able to soundly defeat the Ammonites.
This week’s Lesson also draws upon the lives of David, Jesus, and the Apostle Paul. In Section II, we read the words to one of David’s songs. David often recounted instances of God’s active love and protection in his life by singing about those experiences. For example: “God is my strength and power: And he maketh my way perfect” (II Sam. 22:33, cit. 6). David gave God all of the credit when he escaped from King Saul, who was trying to kill him, proving how inseparable we all are from God’s protecting love no matter what the circumstances are.
In Section III we read about Jesus sending out 70 of his students to express God’s love by healing “every sickness and every disease among the people” (Matt. 9:35, cit. 10; see also cit. 12), just as he had done. This is a scene similar to one described in the Responsive Reading. In both instances, Jesus told his students not to be concerned with provisions for their journey. Along these lines, Science and Health makes it plain that “one cannot suffer as the result of any labor of love, but grows stronger because of it” (p. 387, cit. 11).
This Lesson left me in no doubt that God’s protecting power is indeed part of everyone’s experience today. Without question, “the Lord preserveth all them that love him” (Ps. 145:20, cit. 15).
Ben Gladden lives in Framingham, Massachusetts, with his family.