You Came From Good Stock


My college girl friend had a nightmare about me. She dreamed I was murdering her. When she told me about the dream I could hardly believe it. I really liked her. To me she was my dream girl. She was very beautiful with long brown hair and a gorgeous figure. She was very rich and grew up in Beverly Hills. One day, she told me her father had even dated Shirley Temple.

After she had the dream, she started losing interest in me. I told her that I had only good feelings about her and that it was only a dream. However, she did not believe me. Soon she stopped dating me.

I grew up in a house full of tension. My parents did not get along. My mother had bouts with depression and my father's career was a failure. Although they had both passed on, I was still blaming them for my misfortunes. I was having trouble relating to the other students whom I thought were mostly from affluent and happy families.

During spring break I came home to visit a close friend of my family. I told her about the dream. She said that the girl was reacting to my jealousy towards her. I thought she had everything that I did not. She was from a wealthy family I was not. She told me how happy her family life was and her parents always gave her anything she wanted. I struggled all my life and was going to school on the GI bill. It seemed I wanted what she had and I thought I lacked.

My family friend suggested I study and pray with this passage from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being"(63:5-11)

Spirit is a term used for God in Science and Health. I realized from my study that I was the offspring of God not of mortal parents. God was both my Father and my Mother. For example, God gives me the strength and courage of a father as well as the tenderness and nourishing sense of a mother. I could never be separated from this Father Mother. My real ancestry was my forever oneness with God. Since I was created by Him / Her I was given a rich legacy. I had unlimited potential.

My human parents also came from God. I had to forgive them. Their shortcomings were no part of God and no part of them. Any inherit beliefs which I felt I may have inherited from them were lies. I inherited only good and so did my parents. We were all part of God's family of only good.

The students at my college were no better off or worse off than I was because their ancestry also came from God and was only good. I knew that no one could inherit anything good or anything bad from persons.

God never gives to one person and not to another. I do not need therefore, to be jealous of that girl or anyone else in my school for my Parent has given me all that I could ever need. I lack nothing. I have inherited the kingdom of God. I have a rich legacy. I just need to claim it.

The result was I was no longer jealous of the other kids. I was relating myself to God instead of to others. My image of myself was also improving. I started focusing on the present instead of dwelling into the past. I was claiming what I had as the offspring of God instead of what I did not have. I was able to focus better on my studies.

No, I did not get back with my girl friend. However from this experience, I learned a great deal more about myself. I came from good stock and I am proud of it.