Rectify mistakes to make progress

December 11, 2025 | 31 comments

During a tennis lesson, I complained to my coach that during competition I kept hitting the ball long when it bounced high in front of me.  He put me through some drills, and said, “I know how to fix this.”  He changed how I approached the ball, and the position of my racket when swinging to the ball, and the problem was fixed.  I started to hit those high balls in.  Yay!

Life is the same.  When things aren’t going right, there’s a correction that needs to occur.  And we need to have enough humility to admit that we need correction and then have a desire to seek it out and put it into practice.

Mary Baker Eddy writes, “If mortals are not progressive, past failures will be repeated until all wrong work is effaced or rectified” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 240).  These are wise words.

Don’t spend your life repeating mistakes.  Admit them.  Seek out a solution and fix them.  Be progressive!

31 thoughts on “Rectify mistakes to make progress”

  2. I am rather wary of this one, Evan. We have to be
    careful that we are not looking for mistakes that we
    may have made – God does not make mistakes. so in
    fact we, in Science, have never really made any. So we
    have to make sure we are just listening for the correction from Christ, and not starting to look for the error ourself. and not searching for mistakes. They are
    not a real part of our true being as God’s reflection.

    I had a Practitioner once who when not managing to find the solution, decided to ask me questions about my past, to try and find out what she needed to pray about. This was disastrous as it set me off delving into the many mistakes I had made in my life before I came into C.S. I ended up worse than when we started on this, and really upset me, as I had been magnifying errors, that were then playing on my mind.

    However, I agree that humbly asking God to show us
    if we have erred in any way unconsciously, and letting
    Him show us what is needed for correction, is helpful.

    Reply

    1. Dear Maggie, Thank you for being courageous enough to share your experience. A Christian Science teacher once shared that we think in the absolute (Spiritually) and demonstrate in the relative. The quote from Mary Baker Eddy that Evan used points to the relative. His example shows that in the relative, he was missing the mark. Because everything in our experience starts in thought, we intuitively know when growth and demonstration are needed. I think that Evan’s point is that we need to acknowledge that until we have demonstrated completely out of matter, there is progress to be made. All talents need to be improved. Great musicians, athletes etc. continue to root out mistakes in the relative with inspiration from Christ, the “Divine manifestation of God” which saves from incorrect ideas in the absolute and heals in the relative.

      Reply

      1. thank you friend ! The CS teacher with whom I had class teaching in Berlin , tought us exactly the same as you mention here about the relativ and the absolute..However You explained it more mtaphysical; thank you very much for it! ❤️

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  3. How is a musician or mathematician to improve if they don’t recognize their mistakes and correct them.?
    “..divine Principle never pardons sins or mistakes till they are corrected..” S&H p 12

    Reply

    1. Thank you, “A Friend” and John Q. Yes, I realise all that and I do agree. Since then, I have learned what ignorantly I did not realise was erroneous.

      As a musician I know when I have a problem mastering a difficulty that I have all the ability through my study and practice of the science
      of performance, to find the solution. So I set to work confidently that there is a way to eradicate the problem. And when I have turned to God, I have found answers in simple ideas that have been an immediate answer – such as a change in fingering
      of a difficult passage.
      ‘
      I know this is the case in the practice of Christian
      Science now. It just reminded me of the awful
      experience I had from a well-intentioned but
      non-scientific approach to healing this person had.

      I don’t wish to devalue Evan’s message – it is a right
      thing to do, but I felt my bad experience might be
      helpful to others for avoiding such an experience, by
      looking for mistakes, instead of looking to God for help.

      If we stick with the Truth and let God do the work,
      then what needs to be corrected will be revealed
      to us.

      Reply

  4. We always do hit the mark, despite the material testimony. We need only to practice mentally revising or reversing the false belief until we see the spiritual fact. We are all practitioners afterall, practicing ourselves out of mortality!!
    Divine Love knows,
    Divine Love shos.
    XO
    All, All is well.

    Reply

  6. should have been – Thank you Evan for this….
    Also, I appreciate all of the comments on this – relative and absolute can ‘seem’ to be tricky.

    Reply

  7. What a beautiful conversation this morning; I love these exchanges and so appreciate how we are all “working out & working together..”
    Such is Love expressed within this sweet community. Special thanks this morning to Maggie, John Q, A Friend, and Love.
    I know that there will be others following this
    Blessings for another beautiful God day !

    Reply

    1. Oh wow, that’s a very helpful article. Thank you for sharing J. And as always, thank you ,Evan, for your great love for mankind in sharing a spiritual view with us daily ❤️

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  11. Hi Spiritview friends. Here is an article that may help our discussion. The Absolute and The Relative by Judge Septimus Hanna published in the December 1911 Christisn Science Journal.
    Maybe someone could find the link to share with all.

    Reply

  14. Thank you for your thoughtful comment Maggie. I too sometimes question some blog postings but often when I re-read the post I realize I mis-interpreted it the first time.

    But your point about not going on a “witch hunt” to “find” a problem to correct via CS was a great reminder. In last week’s Cedar’s Camps metaphysical article, Kathy Fitzer wrote the following:
    ——————-
    We often hear that, in order to find healing, we need to correct thought. It’s true that change comes in thought. But, there’s a tendency to dig around in mortal mind in order to discover what we’re doing wrong. That’s like searching in the dark for which puzzle piece has been put in the wrong place, rather than turning on a bright light and letting that light reveal the mistake. Rather than searching mortal mind and wandering around in the dark, we need to stay in the light of inspiration and let that light reveal where our thought may have been misplaced.
    ——————-
    Christian Scientists are fond of repeating “If you want to detect counterfeit currency, you don’t study all of the different counterfeits…you study the actual currency and then when a counterfeit is presented, it’s easy to detect and discard it.” There is a link to an article below that brings out how in CS we focus on what IS true and in doing so anything that is NOT true will just come to light and we can deal with it instead of having to “look for it.”

    https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/a54ok9d7mq?s=copylink

    Now back to Evan’s post. As I read it, he didn’t write that he “looked for the mistake” with his game. Instead he seemed to imply in the course of playing and knowing that he should be hitting the ball in, his “mistake” just naturally came to light. Then he sought help from a more experienced tennis player to help him correct the mistake. Again, he didn’t go to the tennis teacher to FIND the mistake, but CORRECT what he had already uncovered as incorrect. And that, it would seem to me, is exactly what we should do as Christian Scientists. Live life to our best understanding of what God’s manifestation is, and if we have a flaw in our thinking, that will come to light naturally and we can then study to learn the truth about that error and demonstrate it…or seek help from someone else.

    Thanks again, Maggie, for your comment and thank you to Evan and everyone else for their comments! And maybe now I’ll have more courage like Maggie to submit questions when I see something that doesn’t seem to agree with my highest understanding of God and His Science!

    Reply

    1. Thank RobertH – the Cedars Camp example is just what I was getting at.

      Thanks also for pointing out the way that Evan worded his SV message. I know Evan is very safe
      and secure in what he says. It is really making sure we interpret things correctly, isn’t it. I wasn’t trying to argue with what he said, I hope Evan doesn’t think so, but just to share something that might save someone else from falling into the trap that I did..
      The suggestions of so-called mortal mind are often
      very subtle, and we need to keep alert. This is a
      very helpful subject to grasp. Thank you to everyone who commented.

      Reply

      1. Your comments are always oozing with love, Maggie, so I doubt Evan was offended by it. IMO you did an EXCELLENT job of asking a question while at the same time bringing out healing ideas that I’m sure have blessed everyone that read them. Much love to you and everyone!

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      2. P.S. Please don’t ever think anyone is “safe” and let your guard down. Mrs. Eddy on at least two occasions corrected the editors of the periodicals over something they wrote and was published. So even people that are in high positions in the church fail to convey the correct idea at times.

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      3. Hi Maggie,
        Have no fear. There is no offense here! I love how everyone responds to the question of the moment and shares expansive points of view that all contribute to further understanding. And everyone does it with love and compassion. I so appreciate that! Thanks so much.

        Reply

        1. That’s good – thank you Evan. I really appreciate all of your messages to us. They
          really help to keep in contact with everyone
          and keep close to the spiritual truth.

          Reply

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