If you wish to be happy, argue with yourself on the side of happiness; take the side you wish to carry, and be careful not to talk on both sides, or to argue stronger for sorrow than for joy. You are the attorney for the case, and will win or lose according to your plea.
~ Mary Baker Eddy, Christian Healing, p. 10
There isn’t anything superficial about real happiness. It’s a quality of Mind that every child of God has a right to feel and express.
If it ever seems lost, protest! Know that you can’t lose what comes naturally to you from God. Argue for happiness, not for sorrow. Argue for the side you wish to win.
Yes. I must remember I have a choice no matter what is being presented to me. Thank you
I have studied CS for 30+ years and I do love CS. In addition I genuinely think CS gives us the correct interpretation of Scripture.
But… (you knew there was a ‘but’ coming), I do believe there are times when professional help is required, whether that be a CS or other kind of practitioner, to help an individual out of mental/emotional turmoil. Just arguing on the side of ‘happiness’ can be harmful in my humble but honest opinion.
I think there may be a danger of repression, or a sticking plaster solution, or the individual feeling a failure when unhappy feelings do not shift or return.
Interested to hear others’ views.
Yes, a loving practitioner or true friend can argue for and with us on the side of happiness.
“Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love”. P.56 S&H. It’s not a bandaid talk yourself out of it approach. It’s seeing as God sees. Knowing what God knows. Filled up full with God,
What I’ve learned in my study of Christian Science is that using this method gets at the root of the problem and corrects it and the healing give you a tool to help defend against it in the future if it tries to show up in other forms.
Mrs. Eddy says on p. 57:18-19 That “Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish, therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.
Everyone is working out their own relationship with God and will take the path that best suits them at the time. All paths lead to God.
Thank you Evan.
Looking at the quote in context provides helpful clarification. Whenever there’s a “but”, looking up both the context and other correlatives in Mrs Eddy’s writings and, of course the Scriptures, are helpful as we listen and let Love comfort and guide us.
I think we all at times seem to be challenged by all sorts of things that Try
to take our joy from us. But God/Love is with us constantly – even through
these times. The poem of “Footprints” comes to mind …. where the person
writing, said at times when things seemed the bleakest in life, there was
only one set of footprints, where when things were going along nicely,
there were, two. But then it was noted that at those times of struggle,
we are carried by … the Christ/Spirit/Truth that Loves us so dearly, we are
never really alone or separated from joy, or harmony, or anything that would
cause us to believe we are unworthy or guilty or unhappy or anything that
would seem to take away our God-given childlike perfection.
Thank you for your question PW! It made me think, which is always a good thing!
After reading SpiritView, I read the Bible lesson while still pondering your question and this citation from the lesson stuck out to me:
There is to-day danger of repeating the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel and asking: “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” What cannot God do?
That’s from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 135:17
The entire Section 3 of the Bible Lesson this week points out how people often limit what they believe God can do and this was a satisfying answer for me to your question. Please understand I’m not suggesting your question meant you were limiting what God can do or how we can be led humanly to do what is best to uncover and denounce error with truth. Your question just made me think of times I’VE don’t that and how important it is to remember the lessons of the Bible where other people did that and also how people in the Bible that relied on God with their whole heart were saved or healed (Daniel in the lion’s den, the fiery furnace, etc.). So that’s my way of saying this might not be an answer that is satisfying to you, but it sure was helpful to me so that’s why I decided to share it. Much love to you PW! Get quiet and listen and I’m sure God will reveal an answer that is just right for you!
That’s why we have Christian Science Practitioners, like Evan, available 24/7 to give professional help.
Yes, I agree all paths lead to God, and we discover all paths start with God. God is all there really is.
Our opponent so to speak is false, non-existent, and materially based, charged with whatever human emotion we habitually ALLOW. Herein is the “battlefield”…our conditioned response to a threat to our survival. We ignorantly presumed ourselves mortal, and fear death.
These False Emotions Appearing Real are opportunities for our spiritual development.
How we adjust and adapt to a presented offer to be separate from our true state of being one with God is ours to master.
You DO NOT have to contract with Error/Lies/Satan/Devil etc.
See the Truth of your Divine, immortal existence. Know this Truth, and arguing with “yourself” fades and ceases. Start with God, stay with God. And remember to say, Thank you, God, whatever happens.
I appreciate your twist on defining FEAR. False emotions appearing real. I’ve realized recently how much I’ve let emotions and fear of false emotions govern my thinking
Starting from the absolute truth of real happiness present and eternal in Mind and so reflected by man, whatever is unlike the truth of real happiness in consciousness will be exposed for correcting and healing. We’re letting “Truth uncover and destroy error in God’s own way…S&H 542.19-22
Thank you very much, Evan!♡
Oh yess, I want to argue for the one and only side there is and can be solely, namely for the side of God, good, who imparts joy to all his creation including spiritual man.
And I love hymn # 164 – verses 1 and 2:
Joy to the World, the Lord is come,
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare him room,
And heaven and nature sing.
No more let sin and sorrow grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
Where’er he comes, his blessings flow,
And hope and joy abound!
Lots of love to all!♡
GOD, i-n-f-i-n-i-t-e Truth and Love,
are ever-present, ALL.
The Christianly-scientific Fact.
Bringing any and all “errors of belief” up against this
divine Fact is what Truth is doing in and to human consciousness. We are humble recipients, not creators.
whew
Wow, thanks very much, dear SpiritVieFan. Is that wonderful and true and healing, what you say!♡
What a wonderful post, Evan, which, in turn, brought many very constructive notes! We are not just repeating good when we argue on its side, We learn in Christian Science that we are siding with (repeating) Truth – the truth that “happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love” MBE. So very grateful! Sending love to all!
Wonderful comments!
“Freedom from severe anxiety and depression” by Susan Stroud. From the March 30, 2020 issue of The Christian Science Sentinel:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/2ns2got010?s=copylink
Lovely article, J , …. very inspiring. Thank you for sharing it and thank you
all for the comments that help and heal a world that thrives on this spiritual
truth, whether it knows it or not. God is our Life, Truth, Principle, Spirit, Soul,
Mind and Love. More than this we can not ask, higher we can not go. God,
our heavenly Father/Mother is with us everywhere.
Great, thank you J for this wonderful and helpful article. Yes, what she wrote : God is good, Life is good.” The Lord is my shepherd … o, I do need truth, too!
I am the author of the article. It has been 15 years since I had a drink and 12 years off of the psychotropic drugs. I am so grateful for what Christian Science has done for me, my family, and others.
Dear Susan, thank you so much for sharing your experience, as it is so inspiring and helpful! Much love to you. xo
If we argue on the side of Goodness, God, Spirit, we’ve taken a position of Truth gaining true substance with a platform of Kingdom accepted into our thought. There is no other opposing force, thought or action that can have any being. Repression would be the arguement on the side of error, a mistaken belief in a power opposed to that which is all powerful. In relaity there is no choice between the all powerful and some other entity. All power belongs to God. We can only choose alignment or nothing.
I like this analogy about “God being the only power, with no opposition” from Jack Hubbell’s lecture “Divine Truth Frees You from Limitation” that was posted on SV last month:
“Being free is living a life unfettered by stress! Stress is the result of two conflicting forces. If you lock the fingers of your hands and pull, you build up tension. Or if you push palm to palm you build up pressure. But what happens when you put one hand behind your back? No stress. Why? Because there is only one force with nothing to oppose it. God is the one and only power. There is no second power to oppose God. Therefore there can’t be any stress. To the degree that we recognize this, shall we eliminate stress from our daily activities. In the words of Paul, “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom. 8:28).”
Thank you everyone for your inspired and helpful comments ❤️
Hi PW, I’m glad to see that you received so
many thoughtful responses to your question. I always appreciate reading the heartfelt questions of our friends here on SV. I think we all grapple with these kinds of things.
What you had mentioned about the danger of just thinking positively or arguing mentally with ourselves that we should be happy because we have some spiritual understanding is something I’ve heard in popular culture called ‘spiritual bypass’. It says that we shouldn’t bypass or sidestep our negative emotions or traumas and just jump ahead to claim we are happy and all is well before doing the deeper emotional work.
But I don’t think that applies in the case of CS. When we know WHY we have a divine Right to happiness and understand more and more about God and what He is and what we, then I think we aren’t sidestepping anything. Whatever is seemingly awry in thought/negative emotions can come to the surface naturally as we work and pray, and be healed with Truth. But certainly at times we need help and support to keep focused on Truth and Love. Lots of Love to you.
Rose, if I may ride your coat-tails and add something that helped me and that is to distinguish between an alleged material event and its alleged power.
I have found that my ability to deny the power of error instead of wrestle with the error/event comes in handy. Emotional responses don’t have such a chance to bloom.
I agree John, identifying error and immediately exposing it as powerless is better than wrestling with the details of the temptation. Once we get involved with error’s story we are in the weeds dueling with the unreal -and that is a dead end.
Thank you so much everyone for your wonderful inspiration and support❣️
What a wonderful Spiritview today and so many beautiful and inspiring comments to complement it. Thanks Evan and everyone for sharing so much love.