Article February 26, 1990 Issue

Dealing with deficits through God's law

In the end, the law of supply and demand has less to do with cash flow than with really obeying the First Commandment.

Marian English

Several years ago, a major source of family income stopped just as I had begun a new profession that was barely meeting daily expenses. In addition, our daughter was depending largely on family savings to complete her college education. Then, quite unexpectedly, we were confronted with a debt of several thousand dollars. The series of problems seemed overwhelming.

I had learned from experience that no circumstance is beyond the reach of help and healing through prayer. As I prayed, the First Commandment came to mind so quickly and forcefully that I knew the great necessity was to focus on what it meant to have one God and no other.

Centuries ago the law of God "Thou shalt have no other gods before me"^{Ex. 20:3.} blazed the trail for the Israelites as they won their way through the wilderness. I was confident that, understood and obeyed, this commandment could be trusted to lead the way safely through the tangle of economic challenges our family now faced. The power and scope of this spiritual law to meet the range of mankind's needs are indicated in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health. Mrs. Eddy states, "One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, 'Love thy neighbor as thyself;' annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,— whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed."^{Science and Health, p. 340.}