Yes, you can

It promised to be one of those days, crowded to its tip-most-top, filled with all sorts of demands and pressures and frustrations. It was the last of about ten such days. So, that particular morning I decided the only thing to do was to go back to bed and to sleep and forget the whole thing.

Yet in my innermost self I knew this was not the thing to do. I knew I had to wake up and to get going with what needed doing. Even though my get-up-and-go seemed to have gone, I kept saying, ''Wake up, wake up.'' I could hear myself saying it. But it seemed just beyond my grasp.

Quite unexpectedly, however, and without any warning at all, one of the loveliest ideas in the book of Job came cruising through my thought: ''When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.'' n1 Think of stars singing! What harmony. And think of the sons of God shouting for joy!

n1 Job 38:7.

So instead of losing myself in a pile of bed pillows, I began to think what would happen if I identified myself as a son of God shouting for joy. I didn't know exactly how I could shout for joy. But I could try.

So I did! I began to be more joyous about everything confronting me. I could see in a new light all the details of the day that were nagging me. They could be opportunities to express kindness to my neighbors and business affiliates. To leave off gossip and criticism. They could be holes cut through the fabric of my self-centeredness and concern that would eventually de-weave the entire material fabric that seemed to enfold me.

I started to know myself as a son of God. And this knowing took me out of the bedroom into the living room; it had me doing away with untidiness, dusting the furniture, vacuuming the rug - keeping active through the afternoon and into the evening. And this knowing is still walking with me, telling me: Yes, you can do the right thing. Of course you can. Why not? You are a son of God shouting for joy.

Then a lovely idea came wafting into my thought from St. Paul's letter to the Philippians: ''All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of C8sar's household.'' n2 If those Christians could maintain and live their commitment to Christ; if in the midst of all the carnage, cruelty, and corruption so vividly apparent in that area they could go on exemplifying the standards of Christianity, then surely I could come up to a higher level of thinking for myself and others. I could gain a clearer sense of my true self as the very image of God, the expression of His pure being. ''Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man in the image and likeness of Himself, - of Spirit, not of matter,'' writes Mary Baker Eddy. n3 ''Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and Love.'' n4

n2 Philippians 4:22.

n3 Mary Baker Eddy is the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

n4 Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 94.

How can I ever be thankful enough for a better understanding of the truth of being that Christ Jesus lived and showed forth. For a more sacred sense of the value of life and what can be done with it.

So, yes, I can identify myself as a son of God and shout with joyful gratitude for all that I know of my creator and His creation. DAILY BIBLE VERSE Beloved, now are we the Sons, of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure. I John 3:2, 3