Each step of the work on a college research paper can be joyously inspired by right motives. The selfish desire for adulation or for an A and, going to the other extreme, working merely to fulfill the letter of an assignment are both erroneous, because these motives assume that man is mortal, that the value of one's work must be determined by another mortal mind, or that one's mental limitations prevent one from fulfilling mortal standards of excellence. Neither the false faith in one's personal ability to excel according to these standards nor the opposite lack of faith in this ability can guarantee outstanding work, for mere human judgments are always fallible and limited.

Good work can be assured by the understanding gained in Christian Science that man receives every aspect of his being from God by reflection and that therefore one's work on a research paper actually represents one's manifestation of God's qualities—the activity of Spirit, the perception of Soul, the comprehension and dominion of Mind. This understanding gives the student his pure motive to express faithfully God's perfect qualities.

This exalted motive changes one's work from laborious plodding to joyous expression of God's ideas. This motive is based on the realization that God provides both infinite demand and infinite supply. Mrs. Eddy states (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 16), "The Principle of Christianity is infinite: it is indeed God; and this infinite Principle hath infinite claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human; and man's ability to meet them is from God; for, being His likeness and image, man must reflect the full dominion of Spirit—even its supremacy over sin, sickness, and death."

Understanding the truth of these words, the student no longer works to meet human standards or to impress a professor. He knows that the only real demand upon him is God's demand for perfection and that the only real supply is God's infinite supply of divine ideas, which He perpetually gives to His children.

One semester the writer had a five thousand-word graduate research paper due on Thursday, and, by Monday of that week, she still had not begun to write it. Her subject for the paper was one about which very little had been written. With the pressure of this deadline and the coming final examinations, she began to fear that she could not possibly find five thousand words to say on her topic. The fear-dictated motive for her work was to fill up pages. This motive made the writing of every paragraph an immense, time-consuming effort.

On Tuesday night, after returning from a Christian Science college organization meeting, she counted once again the few hundred words she had thus far managed to write on her paper. Suddenly she awoke to the fact that her professor did not want just pages filled up with five thousand words; he wanted intelligent ideas. Climbing higher in thought, she realized that if the true demand was for ideas, then it was God's demand to manifest His ever present intelligence, logic, order, perception, and inspiration.

She turned to these words in Habakkuk (2:1-3): "I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry."

She rejoiced in the knowledge that God was giving "the vision" and that it would "surely come" —on time. She also realized that in order to "write the vision" which God gave, she must steadfastly stand upon her watch, that is, wait at her desk with joyous expectation; and she must also set herself upon a tower, that is, keep her consciousness exalted to the truth of God's perfection and love. With this new motive, right ideas and a direction for her paper came to her immediately.

The work proceeded easily and harmoniously. Her research paper was done on time, it contained more than five thousand words, and it received a grade of A. She rejoiced to have witnessed the truth of Mrs. Eddy's words in Science and Health (p. 506),"Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear."

Mortal mind sometimes tries to tarnish one's motive to express God faithfully by claiming that God may be the source of right ideas, but one's expression of these ideas is dependent upon one's personal ability. This false claim would attempt to rob God of part of His glory, but Science and Health tells us (p. 310), "God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all." Through the impersonal Christ, Truth, one expresses and demonstrates God's perfect qualities.

The awareness that the only real activity is divine Mind's unfoldment of its ideas with perfect logic and beauty of expression and the natural desire or motive to express these ideas perfectly bring diligence, efficiency, and excellence to any writing assignment.