Calming Stressful Situations Through Prayer

I’ve sometimes wondered how we can heal spiritually when things like conflict and stress can be such big distractions. What was it that enabled Christ Jesus and others in the Bible to see through the noise of everyday life in order to heal?

Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8), which “The Message” paraphrase of the Bible renders as, “You’re blessed when you get your inside world – your mind and heart – put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.”

For me, getting into my “inside world” means praying. And seeing God in the outside world indicates realizing the results of my prayers. But how do we find that quiet inside world when the distractions of the outside world are swirling around, seeming to cause worry, stress, and conflict?

Christian Science teaches that there is a spiritual law of divine Love. Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science, wrote, “Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus’ teachings, and this truer sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit, –the law of divine Love” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 19).

I’ve found it especially helpful to center my prayers around the concept of God as Love. And because this Love is God, it is the most spiritual Love one could ever feel – it is perfect Love. I’ve often reasoned this way: Love created you and me and everyone. So how would it be possible for something created by Love to experience something unlike Love – for example, stress? Wouldn’t that be a contradiction? Can the ultimate Love allow any discord? Where could stress possibly fit into a life created by and governed by Love? teaching colleagues will benefit from having Darby Kinsey in their lives. As a teacher at BCHS told me recently, ‘Darby is the real deal!’ I have no doubt about that.”

In addition to the cash award, Kinsey will be paired with a teaching mentor through the Conroy Center to serve as an additional resource for her through her degree program and her entrance into her teaching life.

Established to encourage and support high school seniors with a declared intent to pursue a career in education, the Pat Conroy Literary Center Future Educator Scholarship honors the teaching legacy of the late Pat Conroy (1945 – 2016), acclaimed bestselling author of The Water Is Wide, The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline, The Prince of Tides, and more. The inaugural scholarship is funded through the generosity of former educators. To learn more about the nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center, please visit www.patconroyliterarycenter.org