by Mark Swinney
Sometimes people say stuff like this to me, “The more that I learn about God’s goodness, the worse I feel about myself. I’m learning more and more all the time about God and that’s great. It’s just that the more I learn about what’s right and good, the more I’m reminded of what’s wrong with me. Sure, I know that God sees me as perfect and everything, but how can I be happy when I’m constantly seeing and feeling my faults?”
That kind of self-criticism is definitely a heavy weight to carry. You can guess, it’s not supposed to work that way. If you’re feeling that weight sometimes, you might want to step back and get a completely new start on how you’reapproaching your spiritual growth. It could take some work, but it will definitely be worth it.
And instead of using your knowledge of God to ascertain what you are doing wrong, use Christian Science each day to see what you are doing right.
I like to assess myself and my thoughts and behaviors in the light of God’s deep, tender love. Some of the questions I ask myself during and at the end of each day are, “What am I doing right? What have I done right today?” Identifying the goodness in yourself makes you aware of your oneness with God and your great value to Him and everyone.
I’ve found some good resources in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-17) and the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapters 5-7). Those ideas in the Bible help me identify the good things that I do.
Mary Baker Eddy herself said, “What I am remains to be proved by the good I do” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 303). She expands on a number of ideas found in the both the Ten Commandments and Sermon on the Mount. Some good examples are three articles found in the Miscellaneous Writings part of the book, Prose Works. They are called “The New Birth” (p. 15-20), “Pond and Purpose” (p. 203-207), and “The Way” (p. 366-359). They’re worth studying together because you’ll see how all three relate.
After working in this manner for a few days—watching to see what you do right—don’t be tempted to go back to that old self-criticism stuff. You’re past it now. And it wasn’t getting you anywhere anyway. Mary Baker Eddy says, “The divine demand, ‘Be ye therefore perfect,’ is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable. Individuals are consistent who, watching and praying, can ‘run, and not be weary; . . . walk, and not faint,’ who gain good rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and yield not to discouragement. God requires perfection, but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory won. … When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path.”
That’s what you now will be doing as you watch for what you do right in your life—since you will be seeking Truth righteously, you can’t help but see that your inherent spirituality will really start to show much more quickly. Now, instead of fearing constant judgment, you’re learning about the goodness of God so that you’re better able to identify it in yourself whenever you see it. It’s a lot of fun. In just a month or two, you won’t be the same person. Give yourself this gift. You deserve it.
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Thank you! This is SO good! When one’s sense of personal identity tries to say that “You don’t live up to that…”, or “What about the slip-up you made…”, or “Dooh! Wrong again!” It is really encouraging to pause, remember who/what is really in charge, and only then to move forward.
OK, there may be apologies to be made if others were involved but instead of sinking into the mire of falsely identifying with a personal sense of self and getting hooked on the guilt-trip of a “self-made mortal” that can never be right and instead to opt for the spiritual sense of self that is God directed, allows us to be re-made in the divine image moment by moment.
Who wrote this?
Mark Swinney. The author’s name is usually in the small print below the blog, but I see it’s not this time. Sorry about that.
We started catagorizing the blogs by subject matter rather than by author name as it’s generally more helpful to our users, but in the process we lost the author credit. We’re working on rectifying that. Thanks for the heads up.
Thanks, All4Good, for your response. I was thinking today about three people in the Bible–Moses, David, and Paul. They were all involved in murders. They each made huge mistakes, yet that didn’t keep them from contributing greatly in later years. Moses’ Ten Commandments, David’s Psalms, and Paul’s letters to churches recorded in The New Testament came about later and have been immeasurably helpful. I’m so glad that those people didn’t focus 100% of their time thinking about what they’d done wrong. They learned, moved forward, finally allowing themselves to be useful to God and their fellow man.
These thoughts are so helpful to me RIGHT NOW. I was reminded by a dear friend that I should identify with the Christ rather than with error. And your article certainly supports that. It is beautiful how Mind works and supplies our daily needs.