Article April 4, 1983 Issue

Correcting our motives

SHARON SLATON HOWELL

An affluent, healthy, comfortable existence in matter is not the goal of the Christian Scientist. His goal is to gain the Mind that was expressed in Christ Jesus, through which one can overcome the false claims of the material senses.

To attain this scientific, Christly consciousness we need to deliberately consider and correct our motives. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, states in Miscellaneous Writings, "The student of Christian Science must first separate the tares from the wheat; discern between the thought, motive, and act superinduced by the wrong motive or the true—the God-given intent and volition—arrest the former, and obey the latter. This will place him on the safe side of practice."^{Mis., p. 117.}

That Mrs. Eddy put into practice what she prescribed for others is indicated in this account of a personal experience with family and friends in the early days of establishing her Cause: "Sometimes as soon as they sent for me they would be healed, before I could get there, and then they would not know that it was God who had done it. So one day when I was called to see a child, I was so anxious to have the power of Truth acknowledged that I said to myself, 'He must not get well until I get there.' Of course that was not right, for I knew I must leave it all to God, but pride had come in and I had lost my humility, and the patient was not healed. Then I saw my rebuke, and when I reached home I threw myself on the floor, put my head in my hands, and prayed that I might not be for one moment touched with the thought that I was anything or did anything; I realized that this was God's work and I reflected Him. Then the child was healed."^{We Knew Mary Baker Eddy (Boston: The Christian Science Publishing Society,1979), p. 133 .}