We all yearn for personal growth, yet may wonder about the best way to accomplish it. Many – myself included – have found it encouraging to step back occasionally to acknowledge any progress gained. Noting what has been right and good in one’s life can be substantially more conducive to personal growth than focusing only on regrets and failures.
I’ve also found that Christian Science takes this to the next level, offering an approach – a prayerful approach – that does quite a bit more than just patting ourselves on the back or giving ourselves a good pep talk.
It’s based on the premise that God doesn’t create us as flawed, material beings who hope beyond hope to become better someday, somehow. Rather, we are God’s children, entirely spiritual – and the spiritual perfection of God Himself is expressed in His offspring.
From that perspective, growth and progress in life aren’t about becoming better mortals; they’re about discovering, and demonstrating, our true, spiritual nature as the expression of God, good.
This is the basis on which Christ Jesus helped and healed so many. He taught, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48). Today, too, we can acknowledge in prayer God’s perfection shining within ourselves and others, as God’s spiritual offspring. This is not only loving, but constructive and healing.
In junior high school, I felt so far behind other people. It seemed everyone else was able to make meaningful contributions, but I didn’t see myself that way.
Thinking this way was like dragging a heavy anchor around. It was terrible to feel worthless. But as a Christian Science Sunday School student, I knew that there was help to be found in turning to God.
So I prayed to get to know myself better the way God knows us. I realized that God could never superimpose failings or limitations onto or around His precious children. In fact, our identity as His children isn’t intertwined with even a molecule of matter with its limitations, because God is Spirit, and there’s no limitation in infinite Spirit.
As I prayed with these ideas, my whole outlook and experience changed. From that point forward, things turned completely around – I was my joyful self again, as God made me.
The founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, makes this perceptive statement: “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” (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” pp. 253-254).
In our unity with God, there are no gradations. Right in this very moment, our true state of being is “perfect, even as [our] Father which is in heaven is perfect.” Humbly acknowledging that we exist to show forth the nature of God, good, is a progressive step. God is the source of existence, and our true purpose is to glorify God’s good nature. God’s pure goodness is expressed in each of us now and always, and nothing can ever stop what God is doing. When we aim to live consistently with that spiritual reality, goodness and spiritual growth in our daily life naturally come to light.
So personal improvement isn’t about taking a journey from material imperfection toward spiritual perfection. It’s about an ongoing, inspired discovery of our one delightful, God-given state of existence. Whenever we pause to assess how things are going for us, we can recognize prayerfully that in God, we have been given not material life, but the pure, constant goodness of spiritual life in Him. This gives us confidence and courage as we move through each day.
