Start with the right answer

How do you heal?

This is the million-dollar question. Ask any scientist this question and you will get some answer that basically boils down to this: start with the right answer.

This makes such simple sense. In any math problem, you know from your experience and what you have learned that the principles of addition are reliable, understandable and bring about the right solutions.

So, along your day, you come across this math problem: 5 + 7 = 10.75 This doesn't look right. You check it. It isn't right. So do you

1. Try to find out how this incorrect answer could have ever made it this far
2. Guess and see what other numbers might work and hope that you may hit on the correct answer
3. Acknowledge the foundation of mathematics and its principle, and then erase the wrong answer, apply the principle of addition and work out the right answer.

Did you choose #3? I would. Now taking this scenario and applying to a situation that needed healing, this is how this principle has worked out in my life.

Before explaining this situation, I knew from my intuition, experience and understanding that God created everything in His image and likeness and that He created it to be all good. Besides, it says so in Genesis 1:31) So everything that He creates is maintained in a natural state of harmony and goodness. The harmony has the authority of God, omnipresent and omniscient Principle.

The situation: I was just hired as manager to replace the outgoing well-loved manager. I was given his assistant to be my assistant. She loved her old boss, and didn't like me.

What I didn't do was

1. Try to figure out how someone with this attitude could ever had made it this far.
2. Try out a variety of strategies to win her over, hoping that one would do it.
But what I did do was #3

Start with the right answer
First, I knew from my intuition, experience and study that God created everything in His image and likeness and that He created it to be all good. So everything that He creates is maintained in a natural state of harmony and goodness. The harmony has the authority of God, omnipresent and omniscient Principle. Nothing can obstruct this harmony.

Acknowledge God’s governance and erase the problem
It was obvious harmony was not operating here right at the start. Because we are all children of God, we naturally are attuned to harmony. Disharmony is unnatural. It is not Godlike, and therefore can have no lasting impact. The problem itself has no power to attach itself to person, impress others, or grow.

Apply the principle
The principle I applied was that God's ideas are not in conflict with one another. I prayed quietly, making sure I was not entertaining any thoughts but good toward my new assistant. I literally stood at the door of my thoughts. As Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health " Stand porter at the door of thought....."

Working out the right answer
I had thought of a variety of ways to deal with this situation, but when a number of them backfired, I resolved to handle this situation prayerfully first, until I was unquestionably confident that God was directing every aspect of my career and this woman's career. Working out the right answer meant loving consistently and expectantly. I didn't outline the outcome, but focused on being loving.

What resulted?
Of her own accord, she came to me one day and said that she realized that I managed in a different way than the other manager, and so I needed an assistant who could help out in new ways. She earnestly wanted to be a help and apologized for what had happened before. What followed was a work relationship that lasted for years and was productive, happy and just plain fun.

When Mary Baker Eddy gives helpful guidance to the question “How do you heal?” In Science and Health, she writes

By the truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will heal the sick. (p.418)

The truthful argument started with the right answer - man is governed by God. I found that when i start with the right answer, I end with the greater understanding of the right answer.



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