Written by an Acorn Parent<\/p>\n
I am grateful for a Christian Science healing our family recently witnessed, demonstrating freedom over what is commonly termed \u201cseparation anxiety.\u201d I\u2019m grateful to share some of my learnings in the hopes of encouraging others who are prayerfully addressing this topic for their own families, and for families around the world. <\/p>\n
Beginning when one of our children was about nine months old and for months thereafter, he would cry loudly and for long time periods if my husband or I left a room he was in, or if friends or extended family tried to hold him or play with him, or if we left him in our Christian Science branch church\u2019s Children\u2019s Room during a church service. This may not seem like a big deal, but these loud, lengthy crying jags seemed to challenge my husband and me, our extended family, and the Children\u2019s Room attendants. <\/p>\n
Loved ones who were aware of the challenge offered a variety of practical human steps that they felt might help encourage our child to feel freer with other care providers and when he was on his own in a room for a brief period. We were earnestly praying during this time and tried some of these practical steps as we were so led. But nothing seemed to help. Meanwhile, each week at church my husband and I continued receiving text messages from Children\u2019s Room attendants asking us to return after we had been gone for 10 to 15 minutes, as our child had not settled. <\/p>\n
During these months I was frequently on my knees in prayer (figuratively, and sometimes literally), listening for our Father-Mother God\u2019s guidance. As a student of Christian Science, it is my daily privilege to claim and affirm each family member\u2019s inherent right to know and hear God at every moment. It is my duty to defend myself against aggressive mental suggestion. I had the special opportunity to support our children in this important daily prayerful work, too. <\/p>\n
During this time, God helped me to affirm what is true about this child\u2019s identity. He is whole and free, complete, and fully developed. He is not a helpless babe who is in the process of developing, as the material world would attempt to inform us. This perfect child of God hears and understands God, with a firm grasp on the spiritual facts of his identity as God\u2019s son. <\/p>\n
I was also led to prayerfully affirm that no intermediary is needed. God communicates with each one of us and His angel messages are understood. On page 72 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy writes, \u201cNot personal intercommunion but divine law is the communicator of truth, health, and harmony to earth and humanity.\u201d Our child, who inherently manifested God\u2019s loving care, did not need me to interpret his Father-Mother. <\/p>\n
One day while I was praying, God revealed to me that I needed to stop beholding in thought the false images of a crying child, a concerned mother, and an overwhelmed family member or Children\u2019s Room attendant. I affirmed that I could not be duped into giving audience to mortal mind\u2019s suppositions \u2013 including fearfully anticipating my child\u2019s tears before we even showed up at church. We build on the rock of Truth, not on the shifting sands of material supposition. The only reality \u2013 the only actual activity happening \u2013 is the expression of Love. I could not be made to be confused by false sense and then act on a faulty basis. As we read in The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany on page 274, \u201cTo begin rightly enables one to end rightly, and thus it is that one achieves the Science of Life, demonstrates health, holiness, and immortality.\u201d <\/p>\n
As I prayed about this further, I acknowledged God as the only care giver and I began gaining a deeper understanding that man is never separate from God. I am never separate from God. My child is never separate from God. Because we are never separate from God, the role of the members of our household, our extended family, and the Children\u2019s Room attendants was simply to behold God\u2019s perfect, beloved child who is inherently joyous, alert, harmonious, and at peace. We were simply being called to witness the revealing of this child\u2019s true nature. <\/p>\n
Next, I was gently reminded that I needed to more clearly defend my love for Christian Science and my desire to serve church. If that meant prayerfully supporting the church service from the Children\u2019s Room, I was ready to do it. Every aspect of church supports every other aspect \u2013 and there is no place in church that is less important or more important. I was willing to serve wherever I was needed. But God lovingly reminded me to be alert to any sneaky suggestions (or situations) that would attempt to redirect me from serving where I was needed. I knew I needed to remain alert that no imposition and no claim of personal sense could keep me from serving church in the ways God had in store for me. <\/p>\n
As I continued to pray, new practical ways to support our child unfolded harmoniously. We were led to stop carrying out many of the well-intentioned suggestions that had been presented to us by loved ones. We continued listening for God\u2019s guidance. Around that time, we were led to enroll our child in The Principia School\u2019s Acorn program. Each week for part of Play-In, Acorn students have independent learning time with teachers while their parents attend a metaphysically-based seminar in another room. Acorn has afforded my child a natural weekly opportunity to be cared for by others. <\/p>\n
Around the same time, our church\u2019s Children\u2019s Room Committee Chairperson invited the committee to address the claim of \u201cseparation anxiety\u201d impersonally. Several committee members responded enthusiastically. Just a few days later \u2013 that very next Sunday \u2013 there was a palpable shift in our Children\u2019s Room that everyone recognized and attributed to God. Our child \u2013 and another child who had also seemed to be challenged when their parents stepped away \u2013 remained in the Children\u2019s Room without parents present for the full church service. This was a first for our child! There were some tears, but the attendants on duty were prayerfully ready to meet those suggestions of upset, and within 15 minutes all of the children were happily playing. Over the next three weeks, our child continued playing in the Children\u2019s Room without parents and with mere moments of tears at drop-off. By the fifth week and thereafter, he joyously played in the Children\u2019s Room with no tears at all. At home, this child spontaneously began playing independently. He no longer cried when either parent left the room and he expressed joy and freedom when approached by extended family members and our friends who wanted to hold him or play with him. <\/p>\n
The healing was not that our child stopped crying in the Children\u2019s Room at church, or that I can leave him in a room at home without him sobbing. While these things are great, they are simply demonstrative of the much bigger lesson that I feel I am just starting to learn more about: that there is no separation from good, God. We can never be separate from our Maker, from our beloved Father-Mother. Nobody can ever be separated from Love. World thought might suggest that this was just a coincidence \u2013 that the child grew out of their upset or simply got used to the Children\u2019s Room or being on their own for a bit\u2026but after having worked through this challenge for about seven months, I can confidently state that it was Love\u2019s healing touch and only God that afforded this demonstration. <\/p>\n
The second verse of Hymn 232 (Christian Science Hymnal) beautifully sums up my learnings: \u201cO Light, in Thy light we can see \/ That man is ever one with Thee. \/ In love our lives Thou dost enfold, \/ And now our waiting hopes behold \/ That man is God’s own child.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Written by an Acorn Parent I am grateful for a Christian Science healing our family recently witnessed, demonstrating freedom over what is commonly termed \u201cseparation anxiety.\u201d I\u2019m grateful to share some of my learnings in the hopes of encouraging others who are prayerfully addressing this topic for their own families, and for families around the … <\/p>\n