In Christian Science, we are taught to keep our thought’s positive. If we hear other’s voicing something negative, wrong, or unloving, we should speak-up and turn the situation around if possible. If not, we can declare what we know to be true to ourselves. Mary Baker Eddy has instructed us, that we should dismiss our wrong thoughts with an “abiding conviction that they are illegitimate.” As we grow in Science, it becomes easier and easier to stamp out error instantly, before it grows into a “Goliath” of a problem. David did it with one small pebble from a brook, and the conviction that God was behind him. God gave David the courage to go up against “a Goliath”. Notice now, that David’s aim was perfect, he used only one stone, yet he had five. He KILLED Goliath instantly, with one stone.. We too, need to kill our “giants” dead, instantly. Leaving Nothing behind to grow upon our thought.
When I was a little girl, my mother took me to see Haley Mills in the Walt Disney movie, “Pollyanna”. I loved everything about that movie and story. For months, I played at pretending I was Pollyanna. Anything anyone said that was the least bit negative, I would respond cheerfully with a positive statement. My family mostly found it amusing and would laugh or play along. It corrected a lot of negative talk though . We all began to “catch ourselves” and other’s. This was a lot of fun and good practice for me, as a little Christian Science girl. I wondered in my mind, if Pollyanna was a Christian Scientist too?
One day, in the school cafeteria, as I was going to my lunch table, I overheard my teacher, (who was smoking a cigarette and coughing), say to another teacher, “I swear, I’m getting Pneumonia or Cancer, or something.” In perfect “Pollyanna style” I said to her, “Don’t be silly Mrs. Atwater, you’re fine. You don’t have any of those things. It’s just a little smoke from the cigarette.” She looked at me oddly and said, “Who are you? Pollyanna or somebody?” To which I smiled broadly, and with glee, said, “YES!” Then I skipped off to my table of friends, where I could play the “Pollyanna Game” some more.
Somehow, I can see where David’s so called, “well-wisher’s” might see him as having a Pollyanna attitude. Standing up against Saul and three older brother’s, David might have seemed like a “Pollyanna” to them. When they laughed and scoffed at his bravery, it was because he was young, small in stature, only a shepherd boy, untrained, and not a mighty warrior like Goliath. They had plenty of negative things to say. David held his ground. He told them, he could do it! After all, he had fought and killed a bear AND a lion once. He had saved a lamb from a lion’s mouth, and he killed it! David was convinced that “with God all things are possible”. He knew that he didn’t need any heavy armor for protection. He didn’t need a mighty sword or chain mail. He only needed the armor of God. No Pollyanna thought of la-la–la, or denial of the seriousness of the situation. David was going to go out with the vengeance and mighty power of God, knowing that evil has no power. He was going to kill Goliath dead, with a stone and a sling shot!
Perhaps, as David approaches the Philistine army, he hears the crowds yelling and howling all kinds of negative, nasty words….He looks up to see Goliath for the first time. Here is a humungous man. Goliath is over 9 feet tall! Goliath must have looked even bigger equipped with his headgear, breast plate and other heavy armor, wielding a sword. As David pulls out his little sling shot, and first, smooth, round pebble, I can hear his thought…
“He’s so BIG, how can I miss?”
The rest is History.
Truth is, we can’t miss! “Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.” (Science and Health, by MBE).
Thank you for this wonderful lesson and the inclusion of this powerful story!