Eradicate the image of disease from the perturbed thought before it has taken tangible shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you prevent the development of disease.
~ Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 400
Conscientious housekeepers keep their refrigerator clean. If there’s a piece of fruit about to mold and spread disease, the housekeeper promptly removes it from the refrigerator to preserve the other goods.
Conscientious metaphysicians keep their mental house clean. If there’s a mental impression in consciousness that advocates disease, he promptly removes it with spiritual truth to preserve good health.
Eradicate all images of disease from thought and stay healthy!
Yes! Thank you, Evan. It mskes me think of Mrs. Eddy’s statement:
… A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 460:10; 463:12–13)
That “Refrigerator Analogy” is spot on! Love it! Thank you for all your truly inspiring posts!
That is the most beautiful rendition of cleaning products I have ever
seen, Evan! For such menial, mundane chores, it actually looks
Inviting. I must admit I sometimes end up with the “science project”
in the back of the refrigerator that needs clearing out. This is a great
example of keeping our mental home in order. Thank you!
This is gorgeous! Thank you Evan! Does anyone have suggestions for what to picture instead? I know if the harmonious truth. However, if we are picturing no disease, truly we also understand the body as illusion. So I wanted to ask how to picture our identities, as Spirit differentiates Their children with unique ideas we each reflect? This has been something I’ve been struggling with for a while to understand 🙂
Hi Eliza. Back when I attended the CS Sunday School, one day we were discussing God as All. I remember thinking “If God is All, then what does that make me? Nothing?” But In Scientific Statement of Being from S&H (page 468) we learn that “All is infinite Mind and its infinite
manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” So man (you,me, everyone) is Mind’s manifestation or God’s expression (the lowercase all expressing the uppercase All). Therefore, you can picture yourself as “the compound idea of God, including all right ideas” (S&H page 475). You can picture yourself as the idea of health, intelligence, wisdom, love, beauty, discipline, integrity, etc., etc. And you can make that practical by expressing these ideas in your daily life. For example, when I was in college it was common for students to drink beer at parties. As a student of CS, I didn’t drink beer at these parties, so you could say I expressed to everyone at the party that God’s idea didn’t need to drink beer to enjoy interacting with other people. Similarly, in business you can express integrity to people who might think they need to cheat or take advantage of someone else to get ahead. There are endless ways we can express ourselves as God’s compound idea. So that’s what I like to picture when thinking of myself and others.
Here’s an article that also might help.
INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/urdk1pi7ta?s=e
I understand your point Eliza. The so-called human or mortal mind always wants to picture things materially, because it seems not to understand anything else but matter. If we don’t picture ourselves as bodies then what do we picture? Maybe as we continue to pray and study and apply what we’re learning God guides us to recognize everything, including ourselves, as expressions of qualities. I read an article in which the author said he was training himself to see things spiritually. So he would he would go about his day looking at things like a tree, a car, a person etc and remind himself that it truly is the idea of a tree, the idea of a car, the idea of a person that he was perceiving and not the matter itself, and observe/focus on the spiritual qualities it expresses.
Evan thank you for reminding us to stay on top of our mental housecleaning chores, Mrs. Eddy tells us it is our daily duty.
Thank you Evan. 425:24-26 Correct material belief by spiritual understanding and Spirit will form you anew.
These material beliefs are the cobwebs. Let’s clear them off, so that we can think clearly. I have this experience that when I refuse a lie and declare the truth, without any waste of time, healing follows instantaneously.
Dear Eliza,
RH has made a good reply. But I would like to add
what I have meanwhile thought might answer your question.
It is similar to RH’s reply, but there may be something helpful
here.
I would say that we don’t look for a material picture of health,
but we look to God and to Christ Jesus who did such
wonderful healing – and also Mary Baker Eddy. God is
not a corporeal being, as we know, so neither is man
truly a corporeal being, but the image and likenes of
God, who is Spirit. Man is a compound idea of
God and includes all right ideas – as Mrs. Eddy’s
explain in her description of man in Science & Health.
So we find the true picture of man in joy, spontaneity,
goodness, love, and all the wonderful
qualities which God as included in us
as His own image and likeness. So
we can recognise health in all the pure
and beautiful qualities that reflect God. If we
retain these qualities in our everyday lives, we
will be preventing disease. Diseased beliefs cannot
enter into a mind filled with unselfed love and goodness and
joy.
“How to prevent illness” by Elise L. Moore:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/gu5bafhzzg
I loved the sharing today and the two articles. Thank you!
I am too tremendous thankful for today`s comments to Eliza`s questioning. Thank you dear Eliza for your question, as it causes so very clear and good comments and answers which do help me a lot, as well!! Thanks also for the articles today. What an abundance of wonderful and healing metaphysics today! Thank you very very much for SpiritView, this lively and healing Blog, dear Evan!!!
Today I only came to read the weekly lesson sermon late in the afternoon, after I was doing several errands. While I sat in my garden and read the truths in our lesson I felt a certain clearing and filling my thoughts with these blessing Truths. And I Ioved to listen to the sweet chatting and singing of the birds who were all around me. I still thank God for this wonderful day!
Eliza, another thing that came to my thought was the advice Mrs. Eddy gives about changing things into thoughts.
Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas.
(SH 123:12)
Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.
(SH 269:14)
An article regarding this is entitled “Things Are Thoughts” by Helen Wood Bauman in the March 20, 1958 CS Sentinel. https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/6wur18lhje?s=copylink Hopefully this link will work for you.
Thank you all for your helpful comments and Evan for your continued support. They are all invaluable in preventing and curing disease.
Thanks a lot Pat, and I always loved this passage by Mrs. Eddy. But there were times when I did not really understand it. So always when it was in the Bible lesson I thought more about it in order to understand it better – today I do understand it for which I am very grateful.
Thank you Pat for the article, just printed it out to read it in a quiet moment!
So many wonderful articles and thoughts were shared here today! So many
profound ideas that help identify us as who we really are … precious
expressions of Divine Love. Qualities that define us in spiritual terms that
help us share compassion, kindness, thoughtfulness, love … not limited mortal
depictions of fleeting characteristics that portray ~ like wearing a ponytail, or
expressions of finiteness, eye color, or other definitions that others might
see or claim us to be. Our spiritual home is with us wherever we go in
thought. How limitless and freeing is that!
I had to chuckle in the grocery store cleaning section today, where the
delightful photo above came to mind. Some folks in the store are still
wearing masks and my heart goes out to them where fear still seems to
be present.