Feet and Footsteps

Though our day-to-day activities may involve many forms of transportation, the footwork of each day is indispensable. Footsteps take us where we need to go. We take them with varying degrees of energy, space, and lightness.

I think of our attitudes toward life, and where they might lead, in terms of footsteps. For example, willfulness strides ahead blindly. Anger stomps. Gentleness treads lightly. Patience takes slow, careful steps. Fatigue trudges, its boots covered with mud. Joy bounces and skips with quickness and assurance.

Some of these attitudes move us forward, and some stop progress. We have to consider where our attitudes lead us.

For myself, I haven't just been thinking about the work my feet do for me (the physical action). I've also been examining the paths that I take (my mental direction). And I've been considering the quality of my steps as I move through the day (my spiritual expression).

My feet are usually physically active because I teach dance classes to children. I enjoy the full stretching of my feet, the strength they express, and the alignment they are capable of in quick landings. I appreciate the support and balance that my feet give as I move through the technique of dance education.

I make sure the paths I take around my home, in the gardens, and at the studio show mainly orderliness and artistry. With careful scrutiny I find weeds to be pulled and windows to be washed. I must watch the attitudes that move me in the right paths, or out of them. I must stand guard to see that I am neither the victim of failure nor prone to passivity.

If I find these mental footsteps moving through wastelands or run-down environments, my experience in studying Christian Science leads me to pray for guidance and solutions. My prayer shows me clearly that God is good and ever present. Then I find practical ways of doing my work better and helping others, which is expressing God -- spiritual expression.

Practicing Christian Science involves emulating the works of Christ Jesus. Because of this it involves healing physical illness as he did -- through spiritual understanding alone. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life" (John 10:27, 28).

Looking back over the road that she followed in presenting to this age the same healing Science that Jesus practiced, Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, wrote: "The true understanding of Christian Science Mind-healing never originated in pride, rivalry, or the deification of self. The Discoverer of this Science could tell you of timidity, of self-distrust, of friendlessness, toil, agonies, and victories, under which she needed miraculous vision to sustain her, when taking the first footsteps in this Science.

"The ways of Christianity have not changed. Meekness, selflessness, and love are the paths of His testimony and the footsteps of His flock" (Rudimental Divine Science, p. 17).

Prayer and an understanding of God help families, communities, churches, and the world in practical ways. Together with the Bible, Mrs. Eddy's book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures shows how anyone can take footsteps of spiritual understanding and healing.

Mrs. Eddy gave The Christian Science Monitor this purpose: ". . . to injure no man, but to bless all mankind" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353). As we read about the varied topics covered in this issue of the Monitor, it is hoped we will discern paths to helping the world in practical ways, through God's guidance. This has to do especially with considering our own paths and the quality of our steps.

A man's heart

deviseth his way:

but the Lord

directeth his steps.

Proverbs 16:9

*You can find other articles like this one in the Christian Science Sentinel, a weekly magazine.