Reruns or coming attractions?

My friend laughed. ''Seriously,'' she said, ''I'm tired of reruns. I want some coming attractions!'' We had been discussing the dearth of interesting television programs. She was comparing this to a repetition of relationship problems she had been experiencing both at home and at work.

Have you ever felt that the same problems constantly recur, though the faces change? Or maybe your ''reruns'' are of poor health, frustration, or lack.

If such is the case, perhaps a change, a different set of pictures, seems necessary. But in the deepest sense the need is never really for a change of place, for a change of school, home, job, or even of people, although these may rightly come about. The primary need is always for a change of thought.

Clearly, thought manifests itself in what we experience. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes: ''Mortals must change their ideals in order to improve their models. A sick body is evolved from sick thoughts.'' n1 It follows that a sick business, a sick personal relationship, and countless other problems are also products of thought. Fear, envy, self-pity , insecurity, resentment, are sick thoughts--devils--that must be cast out of consciousness if we would be happy and well.

n1 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 260.m

The Apostle Paul evidently discerned the mental nature of things, and the importance of watching the kind of thoughts we accept. He instructed, ''Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.'' n2 He also understood that ''the carnal mind is enmity against God.'' n3

n2 Philippians 2:5.

n3 Romans 8:7.

In Christian Science, God is recognized as divine Mind--the source of all good. God's thoughts are pure and perfect, and these are our true thoughts because as God's image we reflect this perfect Mind.

As we recognize that the divine Mind is the source from which Christ Jesus drew his inspiration and mighty understanding of God's healing power, we'll strive to understand and express more of this Mind--to be alert that our thoughts are divinely based. We'll strive to cast out sick and devilish thoughts and to replace them with the kind of thinking that is based on an awareness of God's love. As we do this, we're letting that ''mind be in (us), which was also in Christ Jesus.''

The carnal or mortal mind is the source of all evil. In truth, of course, it isn't really the source of anything, since the divine Mind is infinite. Mortal mind is a myth, an illusion, a suggestion that the divine Mind is not All. It can never be actual.

We are all capable of letting the divine Mind be expressed in us. We can refuse admittance to sickly thoughts and prove their powerlessness. How? Years ago a child gave this simple, clear-cut answer, which has been most helpful to me. She said, ''When a bad thought comes, I tell it, 'I will not think you!' ''

Discussing the healing, transforming effect of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy writes, ''The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.'' n4 If you're tired of reruns, be willing to give them up, to change the base of your thought. Yield ''to the harmony of the divine Mind.'' Learn more of God and His great love for you.

n4 Science and Health, m p. 162.

This willingness to change our mental standpoint shows our love for God. And as our thought changes, we'll learn more and more of God's love for us--and in turn our love for Him will increase. Then we'll begin to partake of the promise expressed by Paul, ''Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." n5

n5 I Corinthiens 2:9.

These are the ''coming attractions''! DAILY BIBLE VERSE Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Philippians 4:8