I was praying about Christmas a few weeks ago. From the news around the world to some news in my own family, I was starting to feel that this would not be a joy-filled Christmas but rather one filled with doubt, fear, and loss. But I LOVE Christmas! There is no other time of year I like better. I love the decorations, the spirit, and most of all, I love the focus on the Christ that my family has always brought to the season. So I was feeling like all the unhappy news was coming at such a bad time. Not that there would be a good time for it, but coming at Christmas just made it worse. (more…)

Years ago my husband left me at the beginning of November. Being left was sad enough, but when I realized I was going to have to go through all the holidays by myself, it felt like it was too much to bear. I called a friend of mine who is a Christian Science practitioner in tears. She surprised me by saying, “Oh Christmas, it’s either too happy or too sad.” I got the sad part, but too happy? Could Christmas—or anything—be too happy???  But as she went on, I got her point. You can get so caught up in all the preparations—the gift buying and wrapping, the decorating, the cooking, and on and on, that you completely miss what Christmas is really all about. I didn’t think so at first, but that’s worse than missing a husband! (more…)

Sex scandals and extramarital affairs seem to fill the news these days. The most recent debacle with Tiger Woods got me thinking about a strange dichotomy in today’s society. From pop-culture to sex education classes, the idea that we are sexual beings that must regularly gratify ourselves with physical pleasures is promoted constantly—and enthusiastically. So much flash and urgency surrounds the topic. Children are experimenting with sex and sexuality at younger ages. And the idea of fidelity of any kind has become perceptually more of a fairytale than a reality. (more…)

As individual expressions of the one infinite Mind, we are each created with a specific sense of purpose and direction we are intended to pursue in our lives. For one it may be the love of creative expression, for another something completely different. Yet for each of us, it is absolutely unique and God-given.

We may start out searching for our sense of worth from the approval of others, not knowing where our true sense of satisfaction comes from. We may crave love from sources outside of the one ever-present I AM. Yet, for each of us, in one way or another we all must ultimately discover where our real sense of satisfaction comes from. (more…)

“Wait a minute!” you might be protesting. “Love myself? That sounds like self-centered, ego-tripping, caught-up-into-my-own-world, look-at-me-everybody, type of thinking. It sounds so conceited. And aren’t we supposed to avoid worship of self?” (more…)

What I remember about seventh grade is finding myself in a new school about five times as big as I’d ever known—I was stumped by algebra, and the girl who wanted to help me get through that class was my only friend. Neither of us were cool, and she didn’t care, but I longed to be accepted by the in-crowd. But every attempt to connect with them ended up in some awful embarrassment. It was a painful time of learning how to make friends and how to be a friend.

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What an incredible, peaceful summer I had! These past few months have added up to the first time I’ve actually spent living on my own—away from my parents or my college. I have grown so much! At the beginning of the summer, I was a little nervous to be starting an internship in a city that I barely knew, with people that I had just met, and a job wherein I didn’t know what to expect. Over time, turning to prayer became such a regular habit that I am immensely grateful for the challenges that I met and dealt with metaphysically in this brand new experience.
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by Dawn-Marie Cornett

I get asked a lot why I am usually so up, so happy.  Well, I do have times when I let the stresses of life get to me, but most of the time, I really am happy, content, joyful.  This comes from believing that joy is not a self-contained response to good things, but a fact of life from an infinite Source, God. (more…)

by Kate Warner

I recently became an intern at The Mother Church. I’m going to be here in Boston all summer, and getting here was a little hectic. Since I didn’t know when I was going to be leaving until the day before I left, I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to most of my friends and even to some of my family. Now, I dearly love my friends and am very close with my family. And I felt I had finally learned how to truly express love to those I’d always been close to. To be ripped so abruptly away—well, it hurt.

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by Meg Welch Dendler

Most of us are on a quest for happiness in our lives. That search is behind most of the choices we make—from marriage or where to live to where to work or whether or not to have children. We’re always asking ourselves, Will these things make us happy?

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