{"id":3117,"date":"2015-09-21T09:32:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T13:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?p=3117"},"modified":"2015-09-19T09:35:12","modified_gmt":"2015-09-19T13:35:12","slug":"knowing-what-we-need-to-when","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html","title":{"rendered":"Knowing what we need to, when"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, and toured the Medical Museum. The tour guide led a group of us through the history of how science has described human beings. She told us, \u201cIt was in the 20th<\/sup> century when science began realizing we are more than chemicals and material particles.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of us in the group nodded our heads.<\/p>\n

The guide was correct. There is more<\/strong> to us, there is more to life, than what we know now.<\/p>\n

And every one of us in that group probably defined it differently.<\/p>\n

So, how do I know what is true in the face of not knowing everything?<\/p>\n

I can think of 2 ways: loosen my grip on what I think is fact and fiction, and second, look to the model of an \u201call-knowing divine Mind\u201d for good ideas.<\/p>\n

I got that term, all-knowing Mind, from my religious upbringing, by reading the book Science and Health, <\/em>written by Mary Baker Eddy in the 19th<\/sup> century. It also points out that the all-knowing can only know good ideas<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If it stopped, even briefly, to know a bad idea, it would cease being the all-knowing.<\/p>\n

After I\u2019d moved out of the house, got married and had children, I was talking with my Mom. We were in her kitchen discussing how to cook rice. When out of the blue, she told me, \u201cOh Cheryl, I\u2019m going to get plastic surgery done on my eyelids. I think they\u2019re ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

I blurted, \u201cYou\u2019re not ugly.\u201d She looked at me. I looked at her. This wasn\u2019t a case of fact and fiction changing places. It was a case of fact and fiction conflicting.<\/p>\n

We were quiet. Then she changed the subject and starting telling me about how she was going to repair a cabinet.<\/p>\n

I sat there, pretending to listen and wondered, \u201cGreat, am I supposed to reverse our roles and parent her with the fact that using a knife on the eyelids doesn\u2019t sound all that smart? Especially for vanity reasons?\u201d<\/p>\n

Also, flashed before my mind, were memories, of not all that long ago when I was getting ready for school in the morning. Me, the teenager, was standing in front of the mirror, applying eyeshadow and mascara, while listening to the \u201ctop 40\u201d blare out the radio. Mom walked by and said, \u201cCheryl, true beauty comes from within.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHuh?\u201d was all she got from me.<\/p>\n

Her statement didn\u2019t directly get my attention. It was up against the propaganda that cosmetics make me beautiful. And, it had the competition of Barry Manilow singing \u201cI write the songs that make the whooole world sing.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, her statement about true beauty apparently did have an unbroken influence<\/a> that carried itself over to that day we were sitting in her kitchen.<\/p>\n

After I heard Mom wrap up her dissertation on cabinet repair. I decided to take a stand knowing true beauty.<\/p>\n

I went home.<\/p>\n

After the plastic surgery, Mom looked the same to me. My knowledge increased. I realized, it was her compassion and perseverance that made her beautiful. I knew it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, and toured the Medical Museum. The tour guide led a group of us through the history of how science has described human beings. She told us, \u201cIt was in the 20th century when science began realizing we are more than chemicals and material particles.\u201d All of us in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-science","category-home-life","category-relationships"],"yoast_head":"\nKnowing what we need to, when - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Knowing what we need to, when - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I recently traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, and toured the Medical Museum. The tour guide led a group of us through the history of how science has described human beings. She told us, \u201cIt was in the 20th century when science began realizing we are more than chemicals and material particles.\u201d All of us in the…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-09-21T13:32:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-09-19T13:35:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Knowing what we need to, when - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Knowing what we need to, when - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"I recently traveled to Copenhagen, Denmark, and toured the Medical Museum. The tour guide led a group of us through the history of how science has described human beings. She told us, \u201cIt was in the 20th century when science began realizing we are more than chemicals and material particles.\u201d All of us in the…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html","og_site_name":"Everyday Spirituality","article_published_time":"2015-09-21T13:32:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-09-19T13:35:12+00:00","author":"Cheryl Petersen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@cherylpetersen","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html","name":"Knowing what we need to, when - Everyday Spirituality","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-09-21T13:32:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-09-19T13:35:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#\/schema\/person\/5f61c15bc03b38172723cefb1475d1bb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/09\/knowing-what-we-need-to-when.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Knowing what we need to, when"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/","name":"Everyday Spirituality","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Cheryl Petersen","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/#\/schema\/person\/5f61c15bc03b38172723cefb1475d1bb","name":"Cheryl Petersen","description":"Cheryl Petersen engages and advances divine Science, interpreting harmony to the universe. Cheryl's book is, \"21st Century Science and Health.\"","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.HealingScienceToday.com","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/healingsciencetoday\/","https:\/\/x.com\/cherylpetersen"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/author\/cherylpetersen"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3117"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3118,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3117\/revisions\/3118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}