Do you have a healthy mental practice? Is your mind free of all disease suggestion?
A budding pianist plays a new piece of music over and over again, checking for mistakes, rehearsing the harder parts frequently, working to develop his phrasing, and catching the spirit more eloquently until he plays the piece beautifully with no error.
Likewise, we all have a mental practice that we engage every day. We think thoughts. We consider options. We listen to our neighbor and consider their point of view. We form new points of view. And every thought we think contributes to the experience we have, thus the critical importance of only rehearsing thoughts that have a good effect.
And thoughts of disease do not have a good effect. They need to be guarded against and kept out to allow for a healthy mental practice.
Mary Baker Eddy wrote,
“Mental practice, which holds disease as a reality, fastens disease on the patient, and it may appear in a more alarming form.” Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 395
This is a powerful reminder that we are responsible for the thoughts we harbor and entertain. And it is in our best interest to be alert to the thought-guests we welcome into our mental household. Just as a conscientious landlord would never consent to a robber entering the front door of his home and robbing him of his belongings, we should never consent to a suggestion of disease entering a door into our mental home ready to rob us of our health. We can keep the evil out by not consenting!
So stay alert to your mental practice. You are under no obligation to entertain suggestions of disease, moll them over time and again, and let them reside in consciousness. You can kick them out with spiritual truth and remain free!
Mental practice is what you routinely think. Practice holding to the good and the true, and stick with it until you’ve realize a consciousness of perfection, just like the aspiring musician practices his music over and over again until it is perfect. It is doable and it is worth the effort, for the reward is sustained health, harmony and peace of mind and body.
Thank you Evan! Mary Baker Eddy lovingly gave us the Christian Science Bible Lesson as a tool for keeping our “mental practice” healthy. Think about how helpful just the last three Bible Lesson subjects are for maintaining perfect health:
– God the Only Cause and Creator
– God the Preserver of Man
– Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?
The key points for keeping my thought free from the belief of disease is to remember that 1) I’m created by God and that 2) God, Love maintains (preserves) His creation in perfect harmony. In our practice of Christian Science we learn how important it is to not only affirm what is true, but also to alertly identify what is not true so that we won’t be tricked into accepting it as true. Affirmation and Denial. Therefore, thoroughly understanding that neither the universe nor man, 3a) has evolved as the result of some force of matter nor 3b) is subject to laws of matter that can cause disease is also critical to removing any fear of disease from thought.
Love this! Thank you so much Evan! This is so helpful!
Thank you, very helpful!
I remember when I was a young musician that I would practice and practice. It was later on that I realized that my practice involved more listening to hear the perfection in the music that was already there.
We so often forget that we can choose what we think. Your post was a lovely reminder. Thank you.
Thank you Evan, very important to remember that we must keep our mind free from wandering into any enslaving thought in knowing that it is the One Mind that guides us.
This goes on the daily bulletin board! And thanks, too, Brian. Appreciate all your comments folks. This comes from a brand new great grandma!
Mary Baker Eddy summed it up this way;
“Nothing can be added to a mind already full”
“right thinking and right acting, seeing spirituality and being spiritual”
In order for discord to exist, mortal mind must be at the helm. Every one has spiritual consciousness which has to be fine tuned, then all discord will disappear.
I was given a journal from my daughter
on Easter. I just love the front cover,
Never Underestimate The Power of Thought! I been collecting many wonderful things to ponder daily . I’m amazed by all the evidences I see daily!
This reminder so met my need today. Thank you Evan.