INTERVIEWER: I doubt that many people would consider a bad disposition desirable; in fact, in the well-known book. "The Greatest Thing in the World." Henry Drummond says. "You know men who are all but perfect and women who would be entirely perfect, but for an easily ruffled, quick-tempered, or 'touchy' disposition.... No form of vice, not worldliness, not greed of gold, not drunkenness itself . does more to un-Christianise society than evil temper."

I wonder what your comments are on this?

SPEAKER: Well, I know from my own experience the unhappiness and misery that an ugly disposition can cause. I also know the joy, peace of mind, and rich blessings that come from mastering a bad disposition.

You know, an individual's character is shaped by the thinking he does. What he habitually thinks about himself and others actually is his disposition. The Bible expresses it very definitely. Referring to a man it says (Prov. 23:7), "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." Christ Jesus indicated this in his teachings. He said (Matt. 13:18), "Those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man." That is why it is so important for us to have our thinking on a right basis and keep it there.

INTERVIEWER: Are you suggesting that mastering our disposition is something that is entirety within our control?

SPEAKER: Well, what is one's disposition? Isn't it the way he is disposed to look at things and events? In other words, if he is disposed to look at things from a gloomy, unhappy point of view, he is going to have that kind of disposition. But if he is willing to turn from that point and gain a right concept of what is true about himself in his relationship to God and gain some concept of God's goodness and God's love, he is going to see that there is a power right where the evil seems to be; there is a power of good than can destroy the evil.

This is brought out very definitely in the teachings of Christian Science. In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mary Baker Eddy writes (p. 392): "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously."

INTERVIEWER: What about the individual who maintains that his bad disposition is due to circumstances beyond his control, such as family traits, business problems, ill health, past mistakes that can't be undone?

SPEAKER: A bad disposition is not beyond our control when we get a correct view of ourselves and others. This spiritual view of ourselves and others transforms our outlook and also transforms our entire experience.

INTERVIEWER: Where do we start?

SPEAKER: I know where I started when I first became interested in Christian Science. For years I had had what would be definitely called a bad disposition. It was supposed to have been inherited. Not only did my family believe it, but I believed it myself. Well, I asked a Christian Science practitioner to help me to overcome a physical and business problem through prayer. This happened many years ago, but I remember that she told me that I needed to wake up to my spiritual nature as a child of God. She asked me this question: "What do you think of when you awaken in the morning?" When I told her that it was usually something despondent, she recommended that I turn immediately to the Bible and Science and Health first thing in the morning instead of going over problems of the day before or the unhappy past.

One verse in Jeremiah opened my eyes to God's great love for me and for all and showed me that man is actually never outside of God's goodness and love, it reads (Jer. 20: 11). "I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." Another verse that helped me was this statement from I John (3:2): "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." We don't have to put our heritage way off into the dim, distant future. I began to see that this truth actually applied to me. My thought gradually lifted from an unhappy, sick, miserable mortal to a new view of myself as God's beloved child.

INTERVIEWER: Did your disposition change immediately?

SPEAKER: It didn't happen all at once; but as I began to identify myself with the good that I inherited from God, I also began to realize that I had to express that good—not just think about it as a pretty theory, but to actually apply it in my everyday life—in other words, to express kindness, courtesy thoughtfulness, and good humor. Things then began to change almost at once. The disposition improved step by step. The physical condition was completely healed, and the business activity improved. Friends and relatives would say. "What in the world has happened to you?" Well, something had happened. Most of my friends had never seen me smile, but now smiling became normal and natural for me.

When one gets right down to it, he can realize that man's real nature, his real disposition, is actually the expression of God's nature. That is why it is so important to "stand porter at the door of thought" and allow to come into your consciousness only the spiritual qualities inherited from God, such as goodness, purity, love, and joy. As we do this, we find that we have God-given dominion over our disposition.

INTERVIEWER: Doesn't the hurt we caused others as the result of a bad disposition linger on and lead to sell-condemnation?

SPEAKER: Even that can be wiped out by the transforming power of the Christ, Truth. Remember Jesus said (John 3:17), "God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through him might be saved."

I remember I prayed very earnestly to God to show me how to overcome self-condemnation and regret. The answer came in a rather interesting way. I was driving along the road, feeling very unhappy, when I noticed a little boy sitting on the sidewalk with a dog in his lap. He was untying a tin can from the dog's tail, I realized that the tin can was no part of the dog and that it was love that prompted this boy to untie the tin can. Then the thought came: Couldn't the same Love, which is God untie or release me from the bad disposition that had been tied on me by my relatives and myself? From that time on individuals who had every reason to feel hurt remembered no longer the mistakes I had made, and f discontinued condemning myself for my past.

You see we have to realize that an unhappy past is similar to a bad dream. It is no part of man's true selfhood as the man made in God's image and likeness. It isn't Godlike: therefore it cannot be like the man that God made. And we have to lift our thought above the past and go forward in our endeavor to be what God made us.

Actually, a bad disposition is no part of the real selfhood of the child that God made. As we realize this and express more love, compassion, unselfishness, we are free from the effects of a bad disposition. And as we do this, love and joy begin to permeate every part of our lives.