Article July 18, 1988 Issue

"Joy in service"

Barbara R. Banks

Everyone wants to be happy. Everyone wants to feel satisfied and fulfilled. But people don't always know how to attain this objective, and many times their efforts end in disappointment and disillusion.

There is a sure way to find lasting happiness, however. It lies in serving and obeying God. In a message to her Church, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy, remarks, "Happiness consists in being and in doing good; only what God gives, and what we give ourselves and others through His tenure, confers happiness: conscious worth satisfies the hungry heart, and nothing else can."^{Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 17.}

What does God give us? He gives man his very life, to begin with, and He has made man spiritual, in His own image, wholly good. Recognizing that this is our true identity and that God is our Father-Mother enables us to begin to understand just how much God loves us, His dear children. When we truly feel God's love for us, our heart is at peace, and that reflected love spills over and reaches those around us.

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