Do you ever get upset by other people’s shortcomings? Do you get angry over their imperfections, bad habits, or undesirable character traits? If so, then you have an opportunity to be a healer!

And where is the first place to start the healing work? Yep, you probably guessed it, right in your own point of view.

A student of Christian Science strives to live the laws of spiritual harmony. And one of these laws states that God made the universe, and that everything within it expresses goodness of some kind.

Part of the practice Christian Science is to see goodness when goodness is not so obvious, and hold to it until the evil sense goes away and is replaced by an improved picture.

When we don’t see goodness, it’s not because it is absent. It’s because we’re not seeing it. Evidence of any kind of evil is a call upon our practice to see the good and contribute to dissolving the evil.

Too often it’s tempting to get mad at others who act up and let thought settle into a state of self-justified anger, resentment or ill-will. But this is not healthy, and it’s definitely not healing. When a neighbor manifests error, it’s not a call for us to get mad and upset. It’s a call to pray and love more. It’s a call on our practice of Christian Science to see the good and contribute to dissolution of the error.

Thinking back to my early days when I sold organs and pianos to put myself through college, one day, the store where I worked had an extremely angry customer leave a very heated message on the answering machine. I had to call them back. Rather than becoming afraid, and even angry, I saw the mad customer as a call on my practice of Christian Science to demonstrate the power of Love where there seemed to be no love.

I returned the call with a listening ear and an open mind. The customer was still raging mad and spewed out all types of ill-will. But I did not react. I loved the woman. I saw her as a child of God. I knew she had good qualities. They were not apparent, but I knew they existed! I did not react in kind. I listened and waited until she finished her story. She calmed down. I expressed understanding of her position, and then gently explained the store’s point of view. She listened. Her attitude started to adjust. We ended the conversation on a friendly note.

This rule of seeing every adverse circumstance you encounter as a call on your practice, works. It saves a huge amount of grief, irritation, bother and fear. It immediately cuts to the need of the moment, which is always for healing.

So, whenever you find face adversity, fear not. Fret not. Don’t react. Respond. Respond with love. See the trial as a call on your practice to be a healer, and as an opportunity to bring comfort to an otherwise troubled situation.

“Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.” Romans