Article November 8, 1975 Issue

What Does God Make Us Do?

MERTYL BURSTOW

What makes us love good? What makes us do the intelligent thing? What inspires us to do the good deed, say the kind word, smile in friendliness? Much good is done, said, and thought in the human scene, and some discerning individuals attribute it to a divine source, but many still consider it haphazard. For example, a popular slogan on a young boy's T-shirt arrested my attention one day because it read, "The devil made me do it." How many of us consciously or unconsciously accept a scapegoat for human shortcomings and yet fail to credit the real source of goodness?

Do many of us think how often during the day we are exercising the qualities of intelligence, integrity, loving-kindness, thoughtfulness, justice, or mercy, and taking them for granted? Do we simply attribute them to the personal ability of some people to be better than others? Yet such qualities have been expressed in some degree by individuals throughout the centuries. They are in constant use, and living without them would be bleak, to say the least.

God, divine Love, is the source of all goodness and power. Through Christian Science we can learn daily to recognize and reflect Love's power more fully. It is essential not to lose sight of these constructive qualities, which are really inherent in and expressed to some extent by every individual. James gives the assurance: "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."^{ James 1:17, 18;}

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