I had lost a glove. Turning to God in prayer to solve problems has been natural for me for decades, but this was such a small thing. I could always just buy another pair. So I found my thought drifting to the mindset that this wasn’t the end of the world and maybe not even important enough to give much thought to.
Suddenly I saw how that was just not caring enough to pray. On the heels of that thought, a desire to cherish the deeper spiritual blessing that I’ve found consistently comes from prayer swept over me. The choice was about much more than just finding a glove; it was about proving God’s care for us. So I prayed to hear God’s loving guidance.
Soon I felt a quiet peace of God’s governing power that embraced this situation, and I didn’t think anymore about the loss. Soon after, I found the glove in an unexpected place.
As we turn to God to resolve problems, even the smallest of problems, we gain in our conviction of how natural it is to pray, no matter what we are faced with. We can care enough to pray, even when it seems too hard to do so, or our problems appear so large that we don’t feel prayer would work, or when we feel overwhelmed by unsolved problems in the world.
One encouraging place to start when we’re tempted not to pray is to deepen our understanding of God’s ceaseless care for His creation. The EasyEnglish Bible describes God’s tender attention in this way: “He takes care of his people, like a shepherd who takes care of his sheep. He picks up the young lambs and he carries them near to his heart” (Isaiah 40:11).
Christian Science enlightens our spiritual understanding of this unbreakable relationship between God and the true, fully blessed identity of each of us. Biblically based names for God as Spirit and Love are designated as synonyms for God in the teachings of Christian Science. Because God, Spirit, is the creator of man – including you, me, and everyone – we all are His loved children, created in His likeness, completely spiritual in nature, character, and activity.
God is expressed “in all spiritual individuality from the infinitesimal to the infinite” (Mary Baker Eddy, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 336), and as divine Love He tenderly cares for every aspect of existence. As the reflection of God, we care with the same tenderness. This being unchangeable spiritual reality and the truth about our identity, the impulse not to care is illegitimate and has no presence or force. It is a false mental assertion that doesn’t come from an all-good God, so we can prayerfully rule it out as having any power to govern us.
This spiritual basis enables us to quickly dismiss “I don’t care” thinking for the willingness to pray. It gives us inspiration and conviction that we do care enough to pray no matter how little or large the problem being addressed seems to us. Right where trouble seems to be, genuine caring can open our hearts more and more to take in the abundant spiritual good and harmony evidenced all around us.
