Don't forget your keys

There’s a natural inclination in the human mind to remember things that are important. Sometimes it’s birth dates of family and friends. Or a very important event coming up on the agenda. In fact, right now I have a note on the kitchen cupboard to remind me of a car repair appointment.

Sometimes I notice how people put their car keys in handy and secure places. I keep mine on a key plate right by the front door so there’s no chance of missing them. And they always get put back in the same place because they are essential to using the car. It’s like saying, “Don’t forget your keys.”

There are other things important to our daily lives that don’t have a secure physical place, but are just as essential to remember as keys or the combination to a lock. Those things are spiritual ideas. Ideas such as God’s ever-presence and goodness. Acknowledging divine Love’s immediacy and benevolent influence can be just as critical to our lives as keys are to the car we have to drive to the store. We could add to our list of things to remember the statement “Don’t forget divine Love.” What a blessing our lives would have if we could consistently walk out the front door with the consciousness of the presence and power of divine Love and divine Mind – with keys in one hand and the conscious sense of God’s love in the heart.

One day I was about to leave the house for an important meeting with a tax accountant. Even though I had done all I thought was necessary to be prepared for this meeting, I was still concerned that I might not have enough material in hand. I stopped for a moment to acknowledge the spiritual fact of God’s love. What came to mind instantly was a favorite Bible verse, “Fear thou not; for I am with thee” (Isaiah 41:10). The message was short but totally comforting and reassuring. It brought a sense of divine Love’s immediacy, capability, and loving control. It was perfect, and just what I needed. My session with the tax accountant went without a hitch and was completed in a couple of hours.

There’s an old expression: Memory is affection. We often remember things that we love, value, and cherish. As we learn to love, value, and cherish a spiritual sense of God’s power and presence, we find ourselves turning to that divine Love more often and more consistently.

Mary Baker Eddy, who discovered Christian Science, reminds those who study her writings not to forget Christ Jesus’ teachings of God’s supremacy and goodness indicated in the Lord’s Prayer. She names God as divine Principle, indicating His perpetual influence on the lives of all His sons and daughters, and under every circumstance. Not forgetting God’s presence and power always brings freedom and blessing to daily life and events, whether it’s heading off to work, going to school or the statehouse, or preparing for a meeting with a professional consultant.

She writes: “Christian Science names God as divine Principle, Love, the infinite Person. In this, as in all that is right, Christian Scientists are expected to stick to their text, and by no illogical conclusion, either in speaking or in writing, to forget their prayer, ‘Hallowed be Thy name’ ” (“The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany,” p. 225).

We have the God-given capacity not to forget God’s presence and goodness. The more we value divine Love’s influence, the more freedom and success we find in our lives. As car keys unlock the potential for travel, so a sincere acknowledgment of God’s capacity unlocks the blessings that belong to us as His children.