According to Starry-eyed Films (8/21/09), India girls are eliminated through sex-selective abortion or infanticide of over 40,000 per month. The reason behind this is deeply engrained in the Indian culture. For example, girls are expensive to their families because of the high dowries paid when they marry; whereas, sons bring money into the family when they wed. Despite the fact that laws are trying to change this mindset, shameful acts against India’s female gender are still be committed at an alarming rate.
I found it difficult to hear of such a crime and not respond with prayer. One could ask what prayer can do regarding such an entrenched cultural behavior. In Wednesday evening Testimony Meetings at my local Christian Science church, testifiers share their results in praying for the world. How does this work? When an individual reaches out for help and is receptive, their lives are touched by other’s prayers that affirm the presence of God’s power to bless, protect and change the human situation. True prayer reflects God’s love which ushers in the power of God’s infinite Love. Thoughts from divine Mind pour down His ideas of righteousness to direct, guard, uplift, heal and dispel any opposing influence to God’s omnipotent goodness. If thought is creating a cultural environment only thought can change it. Prayer starts with understanding the Truth of God and His creation as He originally made it to be and eternally know it to be. This in turn elevates individuals and society as a whole and heals the ills of society. The key is we give the authority back to God in our own consciousness, not to the human elements and beliefs. This allows the light of Christ to continually shift the human scene to greater good, balance and care.
While I was praying about this, I thought of the story, the prodigal son, in the Bible (Luke 15:11-32). Here Jesus tells a parable illustrating God’s relationship with His children. The younger son asks for his inheritance while his father is still alive and wastes it all in a foreign land. When he was starving in that country, he returns home to his father asking to be a servant. The father greets him with a royal robe and ring as his son. The older son feels his father should not have done this because of the choices made by the younger son. The father tells the older son, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” To me, the older son is seeing his father’s good as expendable, limited, and portioned out. Material resources as defining our good are the basis of this reasoning. However, thought that is ever with God will be lifted up spiritually by Him, knowing that good comes from God alone and all He has is ours. The older son did not need to compete for this good, ruminate over mistakes that appear to threaten it or wish others that appear to have the same source of good were no longer in the picture. Here Jesus is revealing to us that this mortal belief has no Truth in God’s kingdom and its destructive nature is corrected by the Truth of the Word. Jesus further proves his words with his life example. Just like the father revealed to the older son that he was never without. Jesus and the disciples were never without. They lived what Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Soul (God) has infinite resources in which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul.” (60:29) With the higher law of God this story illustrates, we do not need to fear that our supply of God’s constant goodness is ever In jeopardy by meeting the needs of others, i.e. the daughters of India are a not a secular burden, but a gift from God.
My husband and I just paid for our daughter’s wedding this year, despite the recession in our country. Resources came and continue to come to support that loving act and tradition. In addition, we all found, not only what trusting God for our provision means to our lives, but how beautiful of a wedding we could create on what is commonly called a “limited” budget. The surprising element in having this smaller budget, that we all agreed was a better standpoint from which to plan, we had friends and neighbors lovingly and joyously offer their amazing talents to make decorations and shop with us. We had great fun as a community putting on this blessed event. Some of the helpers had no daughters in which to plan a wedding with in their lives and this provided an enriching experience for them. This is one example of many I have had the privilege of witnessing how the Father blesses His own children. How rich this has made my life and I would have missed it if I would have chosen not to have a daughter. She has blessed her father and I are more than we can count. In fact, her father wanted to give her this beautiful wedding and his pure motive of love helped bring that provision to bear. We cannot let selfishness or fear deny us of the great experiences God wishes to give us because through these experiences we begin to know God and therefore a higher sense of ourselves as well.
Individual experiences utilizing the power of prayer as documented in the wisdom and testimonials of the Scriptures and in individual lives throughout history give us a rich basis from which to turn to God with confidence. Given the seriousness of issues throughout the world, such as India faces, prayer and reliance on God offer the only viable solutions, which human means have failed to solve. Prayer opens our thought to the creative, practical and intelligent ideas of divine Mind that help society progress without leaving behind its precious ones.
Anne Cooling
First Church of Christ, Scientist, Laguna Niguel
