Our Good Turn

RUTH INGRAHAM

One day a rejoicing friend came into a home, saying: "What can I do for you to express my thankfulness to God for Christian Science? God has been so good to me! I feel so blessed! I must share my happiness. What beautiful thing can I do for you to-day?" Would not such an outpouring of praise and gratitude make everyone who heard it happy, too, and set all to singing with the Psalmist: "Who is so great a God as our God?" "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together." "What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?"

There are so many beautiful things we can do for one another, if we stop to think. The Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts promise to do one good turn a day; and this is a beginning in the right direction. But it is not enough, not nearly enough. Could not we who know and love Christian Science expand that promise to mean one good turn (at least one) to everybody we meet during the day? Does somebody say, Why, there would not be time enough for that? Well, what is a good turn—a turn toward good, is it not? A smile and a cheery greeting many a time have turned some cold heart warm, some sad heart glad. And it did not take very long to give that! A quick act of courtesy, offering a seat to someone, lending a hand to lift a burden, picking up something that has been dropped, holding back a moment to let another pass first, perhaps steadying someone's steps with a friendly arm; above all, being loving, cheerful, even if others do not seem to respond immediately—why, one may do as many as ten good turns on the way to school!

Strangely enough, we often feel more like doing these good turns to the people we meet outside rather than to those in the home. But even the best manners improve with use, and brothers and sisters appreciate kindly courtesy in one another quite as much as anyone else could. Think, for instance, when we are wanting so much to get out to play but are not nearly through with our work, how pleasant to us sound these words: "I'll help you"! Does not this make us want to say them oftener ourselves, and so give that same good turn to somebody else who may be tempted by tired or impatient thoughts? Sometimes, in a busy household, these words make it unnecessary for the mother to tell the children what to do, at the same time giving her such a happy feeling of being loved and cared for.

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